Head stack assembly with suspension supporting head slider and hard disc drive including the same

• US 7,952,835 B2
• Filed: 07/13/2007
• Issued: 05/31/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 07/13/2006
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: Oh, Dong-ho, Kim, Woo-sung, Lee, Haeng-soo
• Primary Examiner(s): Watko; Julie Anne
• Application Number:
  US11/777,292
• Publication Number:
  US 20080013216A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,418 Days
• Field of Search: 360/244.5, 360/244.8, 360/244.9
• US Class Current: 360/244.5
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 5/4833 Structure of the arm assembly, e.g. load beams, flexures, parts of the arm adapted for controlling vertical force on the head G11B5/484 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 5/4886 relative to rotating disc
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 5/5569 details of specially adapted mobile parts, e.g. electromechanical control devices motors in general H02K

Abstract

A head stack assembly (HAS) of a hard disk drive (HDD) includes a swing arm, a connection plate integral with a terminal end of the swing arm, a head slider including a magnetic head for reading/writing data from/onto a disk, and a suspension that is attached to the connection plate, supports the head slider, and has characteristics which minimize the degree to which the magnetic head will run off-track due to vibrations induced in the HDD. The suspension includes two connecting parts having upper surfaces at which the suspension is attached to the connection plate. In the HDD, the upper surface of the connecting part positioned closest to the center of the disk center lies in a plane beneath the plane in which the upper surface of the other connecting part lies. Also, that half of the suspension which is disposed to one side of the central longitudinal axis of the HSA and is located remotely from the center of the disk in the HDD is stiffer than the other half of the suspension which is proximal the center of the disk. To this end, the suspension includes at least one side-rail that renders the suspension asymmetrical.

Claims

1. A head stack assembly (HSA) comprising:

a swing arm having an axis of rotation about which the swing arm is to rotate in a hard disk drive (HDD);

a connection plate integral with the swing arm at a terminal end of the swing arm;

a suspension attached to the connection plate;

a head slider mounted to a terminal end of the suspension and having a read/write head for reading/writing data from/onto a data storage disk, and

wherein the suspension includes a load beam and a flexure extending from the bottom of the load beam and supporting the head slider,

the load beam comprises a main arm, first and second side rails extending along opposite sides of the main arm, and first and second connecting parts extending from a rear end of the main arm towards the connection plate, the first and second connecting parts being located on opposites sides of a central longitudinal axis of the HSA, the central longitudinal axis lying in a plane coincident with the axis of rotation of the swing arm and bisecting the head slider, the first and second connecting parts having attaching surfaces at which the connecting parts are attached to the connection plate, respectively, the attaching surface of the first connecting part lying in a plane beneath that in which the attaching surface of the second connecting part lies,

the first side-rail extends alongside the main arm at that portion of the suspension which is disposed on said one side of the central longitudinal axis, the second side-rail extends alongside the main arm at that portion of the suspension which is disposed on said other side of the central longitudinal axis, and the first and second side-rails are each inclined relative to the main arm of the load beam and subtend different angles with the main arm, and

that portion of the suspension which is disposed on one side of the central longitudinal axis and includes the second connecting part is stiffer, on account of said side rails, than that portion of the suspension which is disposed on the other side of the central longitudinal axis and includes the first connecting part.

2. The HSA of claim 1, wherein the attaching surfaces of the first connecting part and the second connecting part are the upper surfaces of the first connecting part and the second connecting part.

3. The HSA of claim 1, wherein the connection plate has first and second corners, and the first and second connecting parts of the suspension are attached directly to the first and second corners of the connection plate, respectively.

4. The HSA of claim 3, wherein the thickness of the connection plate at the first corner thereof is different than the thickness of the connection plate at the second corner thereof.

5. The HSA of claim 1, further comprising a spacer interposed between the attaching surface of one of the connecting parts and the connection plate.

6. A hard disk drive (HDD) comprising:

a base;

a spindle motor mounted to the base;

a disk fixed to the spindle motor so as to be rotated by the spindle motor; and

a head stack assembly (HSA) supported by the base, the HSA comprising a swing arm mounted to the base so as to be rotatable relative to the base about an axis of rotation,

a connection plate integral with the swing arm at a terminal end of the swing arm,

a suspension attached to the connection plate,

a head slider mounted to a terminal end of the suspension and having a read/write head for reading/writing data from/onto the disk, and

wherein the suspension includes a load beam and a flexure extending from the bottom of the load beam and supporting the head slider,

the load beam comprises a main arm, first and second side rails extending along opposite sides of the main arm, and first and second connecting parts extending from a rear end of the main arm towards the connection plate, the first and second connecting parts being located on opposites sides of a central longitudinal axis of the HSA, the central longitudinal axis lying in a plane coincident with the axis of rotation of the swing arm and bisecting the head slider, the first and second connecting parts having attaching surfaces at which the connecting parts are attached to the connection plate, respectively, the first connecting part being disposed closer to the center of the disk than the second connecting part, the attaching surface of the first connecting part lying in a plane beneath that in which the second connecting part lies,

the first side-rail extends alongside the main arm at that portion of the suspension which is disposed on said one side of the central longitudinal axis, the second side-rail extends alongside the main arm at that portion of the suspension which is disposed on said other side of the central longitudinal axis, and the first and second side-rails are each inclined relative to the main arm of the load beam and subtend different angles with the main arm, and

that portion of the suspension which is disposed on one side of the central longitudinal axis remotely from the center of the disk is stiffer, on account of said side rails, than that portion of the suspension which is disposed on the other side of the central longitudinal axis proximal the center of the disk.

7. The HDD of claim 6, wherein the attaching surfaces of the first connecting part and the second connecting part are the upper surfaces of the first connecting part and the second connecting part.

8. The HDD of claim 6, wherein the connection plate of the HSA has first and second corners, and the first and second connecting parts of the suspension are attached directly to the first and second corners of the connection plate, respectively.

9. The HDD of claim 8, wherein the thickness of the connection plate at the first corner thereof is different than the thickness of the connection plate at the second corner thereof.

10. The HDD of claim 6, wherein the HSA further comprises a spacer interposed between the attaching surface of one of the connecting parts and the connection plate.