Did You Know...
...that the Slinky toy was the result of a failed attempt by engineer Richard James to produce an antivibration device for ship instruments? His goal was to develop a spring that would instantaneously counterbalance the wave motion that rocks a ship at sea. Instead, he developed the Slinky.
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 8189298 | Disk drive actuator having a C-shaped bobbin with wings adjacent longitudinal coil legs A C-shaped bobbin includes a bobbin base member adjacent and attached to a first lateral leg of an actuator coil. A bobbin recess, adjacent the bobbin base member, separates first and second bobbin wings. The first and second bobbin wings define first and second win... | 05/29/2012 |
| 8179640 | Head actuator velocity control for electrical power off in a disk drive A hard disk drive with a voice coil motor coupled to a head. The head is coupled to a disk that is rotated by a spindle motor. The spindle motor generates a back-emf current. The disk drive also includes a drive circuit that causes the voice coil motor to move the h... | 05/15/2012 |
| 8134808 | Hard disk drive A hard disk drive includes a head stack assembly including an actuator arm, a voice coil coupled to a bobbin, and a pivot shaft holder, rotatably coupled to a pivot shaft, disposed between the actuator arm and the voice coil. The hard disk drive also includes at lea... | 03/13/2012 |
| 8120901 | Hard disk mounting device A hard disk mounting device includes a receiving portion, a first adapter card, and a second adapter card. The receiving portion includes a bottom plate with a first end and a opposite second end. The first adapter card is attached to the first end of the bottom pla... | 02/21/2012 |
| 8040637 | Drive with voice coil motor A drive is provided executing high-speed oscillatory motion. A voice coil motor in a pixel shifter includes a coil of a rectangular shape producing thrust along an axis, a flap fixing the coil, and flat springs giving to the flap an urging force against the thrust. ... | 10/18/2011 |
| 8031439 | Head stack assembly including a swing arm having a bobbin and a printed circuit board with conductive traces attached to the bobbin, and hard disk drive comprising the same The head stack assembly of a hard disk drive includes a bobbin, and a printed circuit board attached to the bobbin. The bobbin forms an end of the head stack assembly that is rotatable about an axis of a shaft. The printed circuit board has a flat conductive pattern... | 10/04/2011 |
| 7990657 | Plurality of non-magnetic dampers on a voice coil yoke arm A plurality of non-magnetic dampers on a voice coil yoke arm for reducing low frequency vibration in a hard disk drive is disclosed. One embodiment provides housing and at least one disk coupled with the housing. In addition, an actuator is coupled to the housing, t... | 08/02/2011 |
| 7876532 | Low-profile rotary motor with fixed back iron A rotary actuator motor is provided including a stationary coil section and a rotating magnet. The magnet is incorporated with the pivot bearing assembly, and the coil section is aligned with the magnet along an axis of rotation of the actuator. The magnet fully enc... | 01/25/2011 |
| 7855856 | Disk device employing a CSS system head supporting unit A disk drive includes a magnetic recording medium rotatably supported, a spindle motor for spinning the recording medium, a slider having a head, a supporting arm having the slider at a first end facing the recording medium, a bearing for holding the supporting arm ... | 12/21/2010 |
| 7457084 | Recording medium drive with magnetic body embedded in housing base opposite voice coil motor to suppress leakage flux A hard disk drive includes a base having a bottom plate. A magnetic body is embedded in the bottom plate. The magnetic body is allowed to serve as a magnetic shield in the hard disk drive. The magnetic body is allowed to have a sufficient thickness without requiring... | 11/25/2008 |
| 7420782 | Rotating disk storage device Embodiments of the present invention provide a rotating disk storage device adopting a thin yoke structure. In one embodiment, the yoke structure of a voice coil motor includes a base of a casing formed from a ferromagnetic material; an auxiliary yoke disposed so as... | 09/02/2008 |
| 7414815 | Magnetic head actuator with centered deviation A magnetic disk device comprises a magnetic disk in which a data zone is formed. An actuator has a voice coil and a head slider carrying a magnetic head, the actuator being swung to move the magnetic head over the disk between an innermost position of the data zone ... | 08/19/2008 |
| 7372670 | Disk drive including magnetic element support with primary and secondary magnetic flux paths A disk drive includes a base, a disk, an actuator with a coil having first and second legs, and a magnetic element support. The support includes a first plate section including a first support portion and a first extension portion. The support includes a second plat... | 05/13/2008 |
| 7369355 | Magnetic disk drive apparatus and manufacturing method of magnetic disk drive apparatus A magnetic disk drive apparatus includes a housing member with first and second faces opposed to each other, at least part of each of the first and second faces being opened, a first cover member for covering the first face of the housing member, a second cover memb... | 05/06/2008 |
| 7355305 | Small-size direct-acting actuator A direct-acting actuator is provided comprising a stator section (16), an attachment section (6) secured to the stator section, micro-beams (8, 10) extending from the attachment section, a rotor section (12) supported for swing motion by ... | 04/08/2008 |
| 7336448 | Magnetic head actuator with equalized deviation A magnetic disk device comprises a magnetic disk in which a data zone is formed. An actuator has a voice coil and a head slider carrying a magnetic head, the actuator being swung to move the magnetic head over the disk between an innermost position of the data zone ... | 02/26/2008 |
| 7336447 | Disk device with inertia arm retaining portion stepped up from top yoke An inertia latch mechanism has a latch arm, which latches a head actuator in a retreated position, and an inertia arm, which is rockably supported around a second pivot and rotates the latch arm to a latch position by rotating around the second pivot when subjected ... | 02/26/2008 |
| 7333862 | Position control device of moving body, stage device using the position control device, and position control method of moving body A position control device of a moving body, by which position control device a moving body can be driven in a translational manner with high precision where the moving body is not rotated in a yawing direction even if disturbance is input, a stage device using the p... | 02/19/2008 |
| 7327537 | Disk drive including a magnetic element support with a first transition section angularly lateral to a coil and a second transition section radially beyond the coil A disk drive includes a base, a disk rotatably coupled to the base, and a rotary actuator coupled to the base adjacent the disk. The rotary actuator is configured to pivot about an axis of rotation, and includes a coil. The disk drive further includes a magnetic ele... | 02/05/2008 |
| 7289301 | Voice coil motor coupling structure of hard disk drive A voice coil motor coupling structure of a hard disk drive for coupling a voice coil motor to a base plate of the hard disk drive, the voice coil motor includes a coil coupled to a rear end portion of an actuator arm, an upper yoke and a lower yoke provided at upper... | 10/30/2007 |
| 7277256 | Actuator and hard disk drive employing the same An actuator of a hard disk drive moves a magnetic head to record and reproduce data with respect to a disk to a predetermined position on the disk. The actuator includes a suspension supporting a slider where the magnetic head is mounted, and an arm included on a ba... | 10/02/2007 |
| 7275303 | Method for making a disc drive The upper voice coil motor magnet assembly (64a′) of a disk drive (10′) is magnetically aligned with the lower voice coil motor magnet assembly (64b′) using an alignment fixture (126). The alignment fixture (126... | 10/02/2007 |
| 7274119 | Yoke for voice coil motor in recording disk drive A first yoke member is received on a first reference plane defined on a support body. A second yoke member is coupled to the first yoke member so as to define a space for accommodation of a voice coil between the first and second yoke members. The second yoke member... | 09/25/2007 |
| 7271967 | System and method for determining whether defect in perpendicular recording disk drive is from thermal asperity or defect in magnetically soft underlayer A method for determining whether a spike in a read back signal from a read head positioned over a perpendicular recording disk having a magnetically soft underlayer (SUL) is caused by a defect in the SUL or by a thermal asperity (TA). A first read back signal with t... | 09/18/2007 |
| 7271345 | Method and apparatus for attenuating flexible circuit resonance The present invention includes a method and apparatus for attenuating flexible circuit resonance. The apparatus includes a flexible circuit assembly. The flexible circuit assembly has a flexible circuit having a flexible cable with first and second sides. The flexib... | 09/18/2007 |
| 7262939 | System, method, and apparatus for attaching top pole piece of a voice coil motor to a hard disk drive enclosure A top pole piece of a voice coil motor (VCM) is attached to a hard disk drive cover without screw fasteners and with minimal loss of VCM magnetic flux capacity. A pair of leaf springs are supported at both ends, rather than by cantilever, to more uniformly distribut... | 08/28/2007 |
| 7245458 | System and method for improving the electrical connection of a hard drive relay flexible circuit assembly of an HGA flexure cable A system and method are disclosed for improving the electrical connection of a hard drive relay flexible circuit assembly to a head-gimbal assembly (HGA) flexure cable. In one embodiment, a flexible circuit assembly is attached to a hard drive coil carriage via a U-... | 07/17/2007 |
| 7243058 | Method and circuit for operating a voice coil actuator of a mass data storage device A circuit (90) and method are presented to accurately determine a BEMF voltage of a VCM coil (20) after termination of a driving current in a first current direction in the coil (20). The circuit includes a circuit for activating selected VCM co... | 07/10/2007 |
| 7239486 | System and apparatus for reducing off-track gain for a disk drive actuator The dynamics of a disk drive actuator are enhanced by redistributing the mass and stiffness of the structure. The two nodal points of the second primary bending mode of the actuator are relocated to positions that are both radially outboard of their original positio... | 07/03/2007 |
| 7222410 | Method of assembly of a disk drive including engaging first and second VCM plates while maintaining a holding force against the first VCM plate A method of assembly of a disk drive including providing a disk drive base. The method further includes providing a first VCM plate with an attached first magnet. The method further includes applying a holding force against the first VCM plate for holding the first ... | 05/29/2007 |
| 7161768 | Disk drive including an orthogonally disposed actuator coil and an E-shaped voice coil motor yoke for supporting a pair of voice coil magnets A disk drive including a generally E-shaped voice coil motor yoke. The yoke includes a generally C-shaped integrally formed first yoke body, the first yoke body including a first yoke first prong and a first yoke second prong. The yoke further includes a generally C... | 01/09/2007 |
| 7161769 | Disk drive having an actuator arm assembly that includes stamped actuator arms A disk drive includes a disk and a head stack assembly. The head stack assembly includes an actuator arm assembly that includes first and second stamped actuator arms. The first stamped actuator arm may include a first arm portion, a first body portion and a coil-su... | 01/09/2007 |
| 7154699 | High bandwidth large stroke spin-stand A high bandwidth, large stroke spin-stand for testing components of a disc drive includes a coarse positioning stage and a rotary micropositioning stage. The spin-stand is capable of positioning a transducer head relative to the data storage disc based on one or bot... | 12/26/2006 |
| 7151649 | Arm-suspension-pivot bearing integral design A solid-state actuation mechanism for use in a data storage system. The actuation mechanism includes an anchor fixedly attached to a housing of the data storage system, a spring member including a first end coupled to the anchor, a suspension coupled to a second end... | 12/19/2006 |
| 7149058 | Actuator latch with variable retention force Apparatus for latching an actuator, such as used in a data storage device. A moveable electrical coil is disposed adjacent a magnetically permeable structure. The coil is latched by magnetic flux passing across a gap extending into the structure which establishes a ... | 12/12/2006 |
| 7146623 | Head support device and it's driving method, and drive disk using same The present invention provides a head support mechanism wherein the position can be accurately corrected at a high speed when the mode is shifted from reproducing to recording, and also, the deflection of recording magnetic field from the direction of initialized ma... | 12/05/2006 |
| 7119993 | Actuator assembly including a circuit assembly and a damper therefor Apparatus and method for damping operational vibration modes of an actuator assembly. The actuator assembly preferably supports a data transducing head adjacent a storage medium in a servo track writing environment. The actuator assembly further supports a circuit a... | 10/10/2006 |
| 7095595 | Hard disk drive comprising flexible printed circuit with damping material A hard disk drive including a flexible printed circuit (FPC) in which a base layer and a cover layer are arranged with a circuit layer therebetween. In addition, a damping material is coupled at a predetermined portion of the signal patterns in the circuit layer so ... | 08/22/2006 |
| 7092214 | Wireless suspension design to accommodate multiple drive designs A wireless suspension design is described that can be used in varying types of drive designs. In one embodiment, a flex circuit is provided with at least two indicia to indicate where the flex circuit is to be bent when attaching it to a head stack assembly. ... | 08/15/2006 |
| 7088556 | Positioner for a disk drive that offsets the resultant force at the actuator hub to precisely position a data transducer A disk drive includes a storage disk, a data transducer, an actuator assembly and a positioner. The actuator assembly supports the data transducer over the storage disk. The actuator assembly includes a rotatable actuator hub and a longitudinal axis. The positioner ... | 08/08/2006 |
