Did You Know...
...that Thomas Edison's patent application on his phonograph was approved by the Patent Office in just seven weeks? In contrast, it took Gordon Gould, the inventor of the laser, 30 years to obtain his patent -- finally awarded in 1988!
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 8094414 | Head gimbal assembly mounting mechanism An apparatus for detachably mounting a head gimbal assembly to an actuator coil assembly is described. The apparatus includes a lever pivotally connected to an upper surface of an arm of the actuator coil assembly and operable to pivot between a release position and... | 01/10/2012 |
| 7609486 | Disk drive including a post attached to a disk drive base and a cover for limiting rotation of an actuator A disk drive includes a disk drive base. The disk drive further includes a cover. The disk drive further includes a rotary actuator rotably coupled to the disk drive base and the cover. The rotary actuator is disposed between the disk drive base and the cover. The d... | 10/27/2009 |
| 7609485 | Head gimbal assembly and head stack assembly having accurate dimensions Embodiments of the invention provide a head gimbal assembly and a head stack assembly suitable for a miniature magnetic disk drive, and capable of being assembled in an accurate alignment during its fabrication. In one embodiment, a fixing member is disposed in cont... | 10/27/2009 |
| 7420783 | Slim actuator and slim micro-drive apparatus comprising the same A slim actuator and a micro-drive apparatus using the same are provided. The slim actuator includes a suspension having a head mounted at one end of the suspension to write/read data to/from a disk and a head gimbal assembly. The head gimbal assembly includes a unit... | 09/02/2008 |
| 7367107 | Method for making a disk drive head stack assembly having a tapered pivot bearing A disk drive head stack assembly (66) of a configuration that facilitates the assembly thereof is disclosed. One or more head/arm assemblies (74) are mounted on a pivot bearing (118). This pivot bearing (118) includes a tapered section ( | 05/06/2008 |
| 7369368 | Head stack assembly having an actuator body with multiple slots adjacent to a bore A head stack assembly for a disk drive includes an actuator body. The actuator body includes a pair of sides, a bore defining a longitudinal axis, a first slot extending between the pair of sides, a second slot extending along a direction perpendicular to the longit... | 05/06/2008 |
| 7365947 | Head support mechanism, head arm assembly, and disk drive apparatus with head arm assembly with weight formed around horizontal bearing A head support mechanism includes a rigid support arm, a suspension for supporting, at its leading end section, a head slider with at least one head element, the suspension having a balance structure that can be pivoted in a direction crossing a surface of a recordi... | 04/29/2008 |
| 7355819 | Machining actuator periphery to reduce resonance variation A method of manufacturing a disc drive actuator is provided. The method includes manufacturing a disc drive actuator and machining a peripheral surface of the actuator. The peripheral surface is machined to obtain a desired profile dimension and thereby reduce varia... | 04/08/2008 |
| 7333299 | Head supporting mechanism including two load beams with ribs overlapped with each other A suspension is provided, which comprises: a flexure with elasticity for supporting a head slider having at least one head element; a first load beam having first ribs for reinforcement at both side ends of the first load beam, for supporting the flexure; and a seco... | 02/19/2008 |
| 7322094 | Method for manufacturing a head stack assembly A head stack assembly of a disk drive unit including a head arm assembly (HAA) having a head gimbal assembly, a drive arm to be connected with the head gimbal assembly; wherein the drive arm comprises a securing portion, a connection portion and a spacer connecting ... | 01/29/2008 |
| 7312954 | Suspension bearings for data storage drive A stacked suspension assembly for a data storage drive having, for example, at least two suspension members with each suspension member has a bearing hole therethrough. At least one spacer is positioned between the at least two suspension members to separate adjacen... | 12/25/2007 |
| 7293351 | Apparatus for protecting and merging a head stack assembly An apparatus for protecting and merging a head stack assembly with a disc stack of a data storage device. The head stack assembly comprises a cantilevered flexure which supports a transducer at a distal end thereof. A carrier includes a carrier support surface arran... | 11/13/2007 |
| 7223020 | Bearing assembly A bearing assembly including a bearing having an outer bearing ring and an inner bearing ring. The outer bearing ring is axially received in a bearing-receiving recess that includes a substantially cylindrical inner wall. An element that is radially flexible is loca... | 05/29/2007 |
| 7203033 | Head gimbal assembly with an integrated mechanical and electrical attachment and a stiff plate A low cost, flex head gimbal assembly has a substrate with an attachment region, a flexure region and an integrated gimbal. The flex head gimbal assembly is electrically and mechanically connected to an actuator arm via solder bumps in the attachment region. A stiff... | 04/10/2007 |
| 7197812 | Method for loading single head in a hard disk drive A method for loading single head in a hard disk drive includes the following steps: mounting a head assembly (30) in a baseplate (10) of a hard disk drive, the head assembly comprising an actuator arm (32), a suspension (34) and a HGA, th... | 04/03/2007 |
| 7193820 | Head actuator having dummy weight used to coincide mass and swing movement centers An object of the present invention is to provide a hard disk drive or related apparatus in which a possibility of head crash can be reduced to minimum even if the apparatus receives an external impact during the operating state. To achieve the object, according to t... | 03/20/2007 |
| 7177119 | Microactuated head suspension with ring springs A microactuated head suspension including a mounting region for attachment of the head suspension to a source of primary actuation, a pair of generally arcuate ring springs and a connecting member. The ring springs at spaced locations extending from the mounting reg... | 02/13/2007 |
| 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 |
| 7158347 | Grounding connection between suspension flexure and arm actuator An actuator arm assembly of a hard disk drive. The assembly includes a flexure that is attached to an actuator arm and a head coupled to the flexure. The head is coupled to a pre-amplifier circuit of the drive. The head is also electrically grounded through the flex... | 01/02/2007 |
| 7149059 | Head supporting device and disk apparatus A head supporting device includes a supporting arm that is swingable in a plane parallel to a recording surface of a recording medium around a first swing axis and in a plane perpendicular to the recording surface of the recording medium around a second swing axis, ... | 12/12/2006 |
| 7124496 | Method of manufacturing head suspension for disk drive A head suspension for a disk drive has a base plate (19) to be attached to a carriage of the disk drive and a load beam (21) consisting of a rigid part (27) and a resilient part (29), to apply load onto a slider. The rigid part and resili... | 10/24/2006 |
| 7088558 | Disk drive head suspension with flexure and load beam supported on opposite sides of carriage arm To be capable of precisely positioning a head on a track of a high-density disk rotated at high speed in the disk drive, a head suspension has a plate (3) to be attached to a carriage of the disk drive and turned around a spindle, a load beam (5) havin... | 08/08/2006 |
| 7085108 | Disk drive including pivot-bearing cartridge tolerance ring having a damping layer for actuator resonance reduction A disk drive includes a pivot-bearing cartridge configured to pivotally support the head stack assembly on the base of the drive. A tolerance ring is coupled to the pivot-bearing cartridge and includes a single sleeve defining an inner sleeve surface facing the pivo... | 08/01/2006 |
| 7079356 | Head arm assembly and disk drive apparatus with the head arm assembly An HAA includes a head slider having at least one head element, a high-stiffness arm member for supporting the head slider at one end section, an actuator, mounted to the other end section of the arm member, for rotationally moving the arm member in a direction subs... | 07/18/2006 |
| 7072147 | Hard drive actuator arm with reduced skew variation A rotary actuator system includes an actuator block, a head mounting block, and a linkage arm connecting the actuator block and the head mounting block. The system further includes an actuator motor operatively connected to the actuator block for rotating a link. Th... | 07/04/2006 |
| 7057856 | Gimbal strut shape to increase buckling load The present invention includes gimbal having an attachment portion and a head support structure spaced apart from the attachment portion. A first strut connects the attachment portion and the head support structure. The first strut has an increased center portion an... | 06/06/2006 |
| 7054111 | Disk drive actuator-pivot assembly with corrugated rings An actuator assembly for a disk drive is provided wherein the pivot cartridge is supported within the bore of the actuator with corrugated end rings. The corrugated end rings provide a uniform distribution of forces on the pivot cartridge and effectively reduce vibr... | 05/30/2006 |
| 7046484 | Magnetic head supporting device having dummy weight used to coincide mass and swing movement centers An object of the present invention is to provide a hard disk drive or related apparatus in which a possibility of head crash can be reduced to minimum even if the apparatus receives an external impact during the operating state. To achieve the object, according to t... | 05/16/2006 |
| 7038876 | Control system for a data storage device with constraint A control system for a data storage device including a constraint or weight to control stroke utilization and/or closed loop response of the control system. In particular, in one embodiment described, the weight or constraint is used to limit stroke utilization for ... | 05/02/2006 |
| 7031117 | Modular rotary actuator assembly for a rotatable media data storage device Assemblies in accordance with the present invention can access a data storage medium having one or more disks. One such assembly comprises a mounting block including a bore and spacer, an arm stack connected with the top surface of the spacer, and a bottom arm conne... | 04/18/2006 |
| 7024754 | Method of assembling an actuator assembly of a disk drive and of reducing torque out retention values in subsequent de-swaging A method is provided for assembling an actuator assembly of a disk drive. The method includes providing an actuator arm, providing a suspension arm, fixing a swage plate to the suspension arm, the swage plate including a swage boss extending therefrom, depositing a ... | 04/11/2006 |
| 6996051 | Data storage module suspension system having primary and secondary flexures A micro-electro-mechanical device includes a moveable mass supported within a frame. To support the mass within the frame, a first flexure extends between the mass and the frame. An angle softening element is positioned between a first end of the first flexure and t... | 02/07/2006 |
| 6963473 | Head arm assembly and disk drive device with the head arm assembly having enhanced impact resistance A head arm assembly (HAA) includes a head slider having at least one head element, an arm member for supporting the head slider at one end section, an actuator, mounted to the other end section of the arm member, for rotationally moving the arm member in a direction... | 11/08/2005 |
| 6963472 | Flexural pivot for rotary disc drive actuator The present invention provides for a flexural pivot that can be fitted within a cavity of an actuator. The pivot includes a first member that can be coupled to the wall defining the cavity and a second member that can be mounted to the disc drive housing component o... | 11/08/2005 |
| 6958879 | Method and apparatus reducing off track head motion due to disk vibration in a hard disk drive using configuration of the disk drive servo controller An improved and distinctive servo-controller scheme resulting in an overall improvement in PES performance, particularly when applied to hard disk drives employing the invention's TMR reduction mechanisms. The servo-controllers trade off gain in the disk vibration f... | 10/25/2005 |
| 6941641 | Method for mounting an arm to an actuator A method for mounting removably secured actuator arms that include head suspensions to an actuator assembly spindle. Each arm is mounted to an actuator spindle via a spacer with an annular lip with at least one detent formed into its perimeter edge. Each actuator ar... | 09/13/2005 |
| 6940696 | Head suspension for disk drive having a contact face to receive jig A head suspension for a disk drive includes a plate that is easily and correctly be attached to a carriage of the disk drive and improves the attaching accuracy and strength of the head suspension to the carriage. The head suspension includes the plate and a load be... | 09/06/2005 |
| 6940699 | Disk drive apparatus having a pivot for supporting a head assembly to allow free pivoting In a hard disk drive, there are provided a head assembly 13 that drives a magnetic head 33 that reads and writes data on a recording disk, and a flange section that extends toward the periphery on the sleeve 21 of a pivot member 20 that s... | 09/06/2005 |
| 6937443 | System and method for a three-piece design of a magnetic head assembly A system and method for an improved magnetic head arm assembly (HAA) is disclosed. The HAA includes three principal components, a head gimbal assembly (HGA), a flexible printed circuit (FPC) assembly, and an actuator coil assembly. The design allows for HAA rigidity... | 08/30/2005 |
| 6925715 | Method for seating a removable bearing assembly in a rotary actuator assembly for a rotatable media data storage device Methods in accordance with the present invention can eliminate cumbersome and potentially contaminating methods for connecting a bearing assembly with an actuator assembly. One such assembly comprises a bearing assembly with a threaded base for insertion into a bore... | 08/09/2005 |
