PORTABLE ELECTRONIC DEVICE WITH MULTIPURPOSE HARD DRIVE CIRCUIT BOARD

• US 20090316351A1
• Filed: 01/27/2009
• Published: 12/24/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/19/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Lynch, Stephen Brian, Prest, Christopher D., Zadesky, Stephen P.
• Granted Patent: US 8,159,777 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 361/679.330
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1626 with a single-body enclosure integrating a flat display, e.g. Personal Digital Assistants [PDAs]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1658 related to the mounting of internal components, e.g. disc drive or any other functional module
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/187 Mounting of fixed and removable disk drives
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 1/181 associated with surface mounted components
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 3/4691 Rigid-flexible multilayer circuits comprising rigid and flexible layers, e.g. having in the bending regions only flexible layers

Abstract

A hard drive for a portable electronic device is provided that contains a multipurpose circuit board. The multipurpose circuit board may be mounted within a hard drive housing. System components and hard drive controller components may be mounted to the multipurpose circuit board. The multipurpose circuit board may be formed from a rigid flex structure or other structure that is able to accommodate translation of the multipurpose circuit board relative to the remainder of the portable electronic device in the event of an impact event. Components may be mounted to the multipurpose board in accordance with their heights. The portable electronic device may include components such as a battery, display, buttons, and other input-output devices that are connected to the multipurpose circuit board via flex circuit portions of a rigid flex or other electrical paths.

Claims

1. A hard drive in a portable electronic device, comprising:

a hard drive housing;

hard drive electrical components mounted within the housing; and

a printed circuit board mounted within the hard drive housing to which portable electronic device system components and hard drive controller components are mounted.

2. The hard drive defined in claim 1 wherein the hard drive electrical components comprise an actuator for a head actuator arm and wherein the hard drive controller components comprise a controller circuit for the actuator.

3. The hard drive defined in claim 2 wherein the portable electronic device system components include an integrated circuit selected from the group consisting of:

a microprocessor, an audio codec integrated circuit, and a system memory.

4. The hard drive defined in claim 1 wherein the printed circuit board comprises a rigid flex printed circuit board.

5. The hard drive defined in claim 1 wherein the portable electronic device comprises a display, wherein the printed circuit board comprises a rigid circuit board portion and a flexible circuit board portion, and wherein the flexible circuit board portion is connected to the display.

6. A portable electronic device, comprising:

input-output circuitry;

processing circuitry coupled to the input-output circuitry; and

storage coupled to the processing circuitry, wherein the storage includes a hard drive having;

a hard drive housing;

hard drive electrical components mounted within the housing; and

a printed circuit board mounted within the hard drive housing to which portable electronic device system components and hard drive controller components are mounted.

7. The portable electronic device defined in claim 6 wherein the printed circuit board comprises a rigid flex circuit board.

8. The portable electronic device defined in claim 6 wherein the input-output circuitry comprises a display, wherein the printed circuit board comprises a rigid circuit board portion and a flexible circuit board portion, and wherein the flexible circuit board portion is connected to the display.

9. The portable electronic device defined in claim 6 wherein the input-output circuitry comprises at least one button and an audio jack, wherein the printed circuit board comprises a rigid circuit board portion and at least two flexible circuit board portions, and wherein the at least two flexible circuit board portions are connected to the at least one button and the audio jack, respectively.

10. The portable electronic device defined in claim 9 wherein the at least one button comprises a click wheel that includes multiple buttons.

11. The portable electronic device defined in claim 6 wherein the portable electronic device system components include an integrated circuit selected from the group consisting of:

a microprocessor, an audio codec integrated circuit, and a system memory.

12. The portable electronic device defined in claim 6 wherein the processing circuitry is mounted on the printed circuit board.

13. The portable electronic device defined in claim 6 wherein the input-output circuitry comprises a radio-frequency transceiver.

14. The portable electronic device defined in claim 6 wherein the input-output circuitry comprises a dock connector that receives data and power signals.

15. An electronic device, comprising:

a storage device having a rigid flex system board; and

input-output components, wherein the rigid flex system board has a rigid portion that is integral to the storage device and has flexible tails that interconnect the rigid flex system board with the input-output components.

16. The electronic device defined in claim 15 wherein the storage device comprises a solid state drive having nonvolatile memory.

17. The electronic device defined in claim 16 wherein the storage device comprises a hard disk drive.

18. The electronic device defined in claim 17 wherein the input-output components comprise at least one button.

19. The electronic device defined in claim 18 wherein the input-output components further comprise a display.

20. The electronic device defined in claim 19 further comprising portable electronic device system components mounted on the rigid portion of the rigid flex system board.