JP2996772B2 - Magnetic disk assembly device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a magnetic disk assembly apparatus, in particular, a magnetic disk which uses a micro hard disk known as a 2.5 inch standard and allows such a recording medium to be detachably detached from a host computer so as to be portable. The present invention relates to improvement of a disk assembly device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A hard disk device, a floppy disk device or an RA as an external storage device of a computer.
M memories and the like are known, and particularly in a small personal computer, these external devices are generally used properly according to their uses.

Conventionally, a hard disk drive is most suitable for a recent large-scale program processing because of its large storage capacity. However, a hard disk drive usually constitutes a fixed memory device built in a computer, and has a simple structure. Can not be carried with you. The size of such a hard disk device has been reduced to the 8-inch standard, the 5.25-inch standard, and the 3.5-inch standard with the Winchester type proposed by IBM as a standard type. This 3.5-inch hard disk drive has almost the same external dimensions as a floppy disk drive of the same size, and forms an industry standard widely supported at present worldwide.

[0004] Such a 3.5-inch standard device is, for example, a floppy disk device such as a 0S series (standard 3.5-inch type) such as 0SDA-39C manufactured by Citizen Watch Co., Ltd. and a V1 series such as V1DA-10A. (Thin 3.5-inch type), and as an example of a hard disk device, CP4024 manufactured by Conner Peripherals is well known.

With respect to such 3.5-inch standard magnetic disk drives, the miniaturization of computers demands further miniaturization of magnetic disk drives. There is a strong demand for miniaturization of a disk device, especially for its thinning. That is, in such a book-type or notebook-type computer, the size of the keyboard, especially its planar shape, requires a certain area in order to ensure the key input operability of the user. They were limited to built-in batteries, displays and storage. Display devices, particularly liquid crystal display devices or plasma displays, are extremely powerful display devices, but their miniaturization is progressing rapidly, and thin liquid crystal or plasma display devices with excellent visibility and gradation are used. It has already been put to practical use. On the other hand, although the built-in battery has not yet been made smaller and lighter,
At present, the miniaturization of batteries is being progressed gradually but also with efforts to reduce the power consumption of computers.

In such a state, if miniaturization of a book-type or notebook-type computer is restricted to a certain size by a keyboard area, an external storage device, for example, a hard disk device is provided on the back side of the keyboard. Is naturally arranged, and contributes to downsizing of the device. In this case, the conventional 3.5-inch magnetic disk device also has a sufficiently smaller planar shape than the keyboard, and the remaining problem is how to reduce the thickness of these magnetic disk devices.

PCT International Publication No. WO 91/02349
No. (Connor's invention) has made a useful proposal for making such a magnetic disk drive thinner. According to the Conner invention, a 2.5 inch (about 65 mm) type hard disk is used, and the outer shape of the apparatus is 4 inches (101.6) in length.
mm), a width of 2.75 inches (about 70 mm) and a height of 0.68 inches (about 17 mm), and a data storage capacity of about 20 megabytes (format capacity) has been realized with a double-sided recording hard disk.

[0008] However, even with this Conner invention, there are still some points that cannot be satisfied in order to sufficiently implement the standard type in a miniaturized computer in the future.

First, there is a problem of a planar shape. The Conner invention is a conventional 3.5-inch standard FDD (or HDD)
Has been proposed, the length of which is equal to the width of the standard 3.5 inch standard and the width is equal to half the length of the standard 3.5 inch standard.

However, this size causes some defects in practical use. That is, when the micro magnetic disk device is actually housed in half the space of the conventional standard 3.5-inch standard, in this micro magnetic disk device, the connector for connecting to the host computer must be considered in practice. Rather, the size is desired to be even smaller than the size proposed in the Conner invention. In particular, when the hard disk assembly described later is detached from the computer to make it portable, such protrusion of the connector portion becomes a serious problem, and further, there is a problem that two magnetic disk devices are mounted on the book computer. The Conner invention has not given a satisfactory answer.

With respect to such a plane size, 96 mm.times.130
The size of mm must be considered further.
The length of the micro hard disk drive of the above-mentioned Conner invention is 101.6 mm, which is longer than the standard width of 96 mm for the thin FDD 3.5 inch standard.
As a result, there is a case where compatibility with a computer having a thin FDD frame which is actually shipped in large numbers is lost.

[0012] An even greater problem is the thickness of the Conner invention, and the demand in the computer industry is in fact demanding a further reduction in the thickness of the magnetic disk drive in order to realize a truly portable computer.

The Conner invention clearly proposes a completed magnetic disk device in which a disk enclosure in which a hard disk is hermetically sealed and a disk controller circuit for operating a spindle motor and a head actuator thereof are stacked. However, such a magnetic disk device is naturally fixed to a computer, cannot be removed, has a problem of lack of expandability of data capacity, and easily exchanges data between different computers. Often it raises big questions about points. A typical example of such a recording medium that can be freely removed from a device is a proppy disk. To provide such simplicity to a hard disk device having a large recording capacity, an airtight disk enclosure with a built-in hard disk is provided by a disk controller circuit. Some proposals have been made to be detachable from the device separately from the device. Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 1-189091 has proposed a memory expansion device that can easily carry an extended memory separated from such a personal computer.

However, this conventional apparatus does not attempt to reduce the size and thickness of the disk enclosure itself, but merely proposes that the disk enclosure can be separated from the disk controller circuit. Since no consideration is given to the use of such a device, it is extremely unlikely that such a device will be used as a standard specification. In particular, not only the overall size, but also the disk enclosure itself has an irregular shape with irregularities in its outer shape, so that the user cannot carry the data memory with confidence.

Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2-126486 discloses another conventional portable disk enclosure. This conventional device suggests one type of a disk enclosure that can be separated from the circuit and is portable, but the content is to reduce the thickness of the disk enclosure by using a spindle motor for rotating a hard disk and a rotor and stator. And the stator is arranged on the computer side. Certainly, this kind of thinking helps thin disk enclosures,
On the other hand, there is a disadvantage that the structure on the computer side is complicated, and there is a weak point that the host computer side cannot obtain the understanding at all.

[0016]

As described above, conventionally, there has not been a mature development to be a standard specification for a magnetic disk device, particularly a hard disk device, which has been reduced in size and thickness. The user still has to devote a large volume to the memory device,
As a result of using a thick keyboard, there still remains a problem that inferior operability must be maintained.

Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a magnetic disk drive which can be widely applied to a book type or notebook type computer by reducing the size and especially the thickness of the magnetic disk drive.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide a magnetic disassembly apparatus in which a disk enclosure containing a hard disk as a recording medium can be separated and detached from a disk controller circuit. An object of the present invention is to provide a disk enclosure which has a flat shape with no irregularities in its outer shape and is small and particularly thin.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide a magnetic disk assembly device which consumes less power, and in particular, a device which incorporates such a disk controller circuit having an excellent power saving effect.

[0020]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a disk enclosure in which a magnetic disk assembly device is provided with a magnetic recording medium such as a hard disk capable of rotating at high speed, and a drive control signal required for the disk enclosure. And a disk controller circuit for transmitting and receiving a read / write signal is separately provided, and the shape of the disk enclosure is optimized for the apparatus.

In the disk enclosure, a base and a cover are sealed with packing to form a housing having excellent airtightness, and the housing has a substantially flat outer shape without irregularities. The length is about 96 mm, the width is about 70 mm, and the thickness is about 8.5 mm.

A magnetic hard disk having a 2.5-inch standard, that is, an outer shape of about 65 mm is rotatably incorporated in the housing, and a spindle motor is built in to rotate the magnetic hard disk at a high speed. According to the present invention, the spindle motor has a thin bearing, and enables a disk enclosure which is significantly thinner than the conventional disk motor.

A read / write head which moves in the radial direction with respect to the magnetic hard disk and reads / writes data on a predetermined track is supported on one end of a suspension, and the other end of the suspension is rotated by a voice coil motor. The light actuator is incorporated in the housing, the actuator of the present invention is configured to have low inertia and small size, and the above-described small housing can be realized even when the standard suspension of the Winchester type head is used as the suspension. did it.

In the present invention, a read / write amplifier circuit board is built in the housing to prevent external noise from being mixed into the minute voltage signal obtained from the read / write head. High lead signal can be derived.

In the present invention, it is preferable that the housing is made of metal, preferably aluminum die-cast, so that sufficient strength and intrusion of electromagnetic waves or electrostatic noise from outside can be surely prevented. I have.

The disk enclosure of the present invention is detachable from the disk controller circuit as described above, and a connector is required for this purpose. The connector of the present invention comprises a connector which is held airtight with respect to the housing. Thus, electrical signals can be reliably transmitted / received to / from the outside, that is, the host computer or the disk controller circuit, while keeping the disk enclosure airtight.

In the present invention, preferably, the voice coil motor controller provided in the disk controller circuit performs state estimation control by modern control, and application of modern control theory to such a magnetic disk device. Is already the Workman patent (US Patent 467)
No. 9103 and corresponding Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 62-25768.
2), the modern control circuit according to the present invention is characterized in that two systems of a read / write head motion estimation system and a disturbance estimation system applied to the read / write head are configured separately and independently. .

As a result, in order to reduce the size of the apparatus, the voice coil motor, that is, the read / write head actuator in the present invention is susceptible to disturbance due to the downsizing thereof. Effectively works, and enables sufficient high-density recording even with the small VCM.
That is, in the present invention, the read / write head must be transferred to a desired track by the voice coil motor and this track must be traced. However, each track is actually not a perfect circle but has a slight distortion. In order to cause the read / write head to correctly follow the distortion using the voice coil motor, feedforward control by a motion estimation system is performed in the present invention. According to the above-described conventional Workman invention, a disturbance estimation system is integrated into this motion estimation system, and control is performed by a single system.
Modern control by such a single estimation system can perform the correct track following action when the target voice coil motor has a sufficiently large output torque. If this is achieved, the disturbance, that is, the frictional force of the bearing of the voice coil motor,
Improper rotation (stiction) of the bearing, the urging force of the FPC board for supplying power or a signal to the actuator and the head, or the wind force in the disk enclosure, etc., exert a great influence on the small actuator as a disturbance.

It is easily understood that such a disturbance occupies a large ratio in the small actuator of the present invention as compared with the conventional large torque actuator, and the present invention has been developed in order to deal with such a situation. The disturbance estimation system was made independent of the motion estimation system, and the optimum gain was experimentally given to both systems to enable high-density recording.
In practice, in the present invention, more than 2000 tpi and 5
High-density recording of 5 Kbpi or more could be achieved.

In the present invention, the spindle motor is supported by a thin bearing as described above in order to reduce the thickness of the apparatus. The disk controller circuit according to the present invention includes an auto-standby mode in order to compensate for a reduction in the rotational life of the spindle motor due to such a reduction in thickness. According to the auto standby mode, the magnetic disk device can automatically put the device into the standby mode when the read / write command from the host computer is not continuously output for a predetermined time or more, and at this time, the spindle motor is in the idle state. Becomes
Therefore, as is clear from the actual use of personal computers, the frequency of use of the hard disk drive is only a part of the use time of the computer. It was possible to provide a more practical thin device by sufficiently compensating for a reduction in the life of the motor.

In the present invention, the connector for external connection of the disk enclosure is provided on the end face in the longitudinal direction of the housing, and more specifically, on the side where the read / write head actuator is provided and the presence of the actuator. By providing this on the end surface of the half surface that is not used, the overall configuration was significantly reduced in size, and the above-described size of 96 mm × 70 mm could be provided.
Further, such an end face connector is particularly useful in a device in which a disk enclosure can be separated independently of a disk controller circuit as in the present invention, and a disk controller circuit disposed in the back of a disk enclosure insertion hole of a host computer. Has the advantage that the connector can be connected as it is.

Making the width and thickness of the disk controller circuit provided at the back of the disk enclosure equal to that of the disk enclosure in the present invention is useful for highly efficient arrangement in a book or notebook computer. is there. The disk enclosure of the present invention preferably cooperates with a specially designed disk enclosure frame for mounting to a host computer, and the disk enclosure frame locks the disk enclosure when it is installed in the computer. It is further preferable to provide a locking mechanism for ejecting and an ejector mechanism for discharging.

The connector provided on the end face of the housing is actually useful for maintaining the mechanical holding strength when the disk enclosure is mounted on the computer. For this reason, the connector on the host computer side is used for the disk enclosure. The positioning action is also performed at the same time. The ejector mechanism preferably has a pair of ejectors at both ends of the connector for pushing the end surface of the disk enclosure toward the ejection side.

Further, the disk enclosure according to the present invention is provided with a drive system ground terminal and a signal terminal so that an external electromagnetic noise or an electrostatic noise does not destroy an electric element in the enclosure so that ordinary users can carry the disk enclosure safely. The earth terminal of the system is held separately in an electrically non-conductive state. That is, two electrically independent ground terminals are provided in the arrangement of the connectors described above,
Each is separately connected to a drive system ground terminal and a signal system ground terminal in the disk enclosure.

[0035]

Therefore, according to the present invention, the magnetic disk assembly apparatus is remarkably reduced in size, and the length of the conventional disk drive including the connector in the width direction can be incorporated into the standard 3.5-inch standard apparatus. It is possible to provide a disk drive having the same length as that of the conventional 3.5-inch thin type or the width of the conventional thin type.

According to the present invention, the disk assembly can be easily detached from the computer to carry the data, and the disk enclosure itself is a thin device having a flat outer shape, so that it is equivalent to a conventional floppy disk. There is an advantage that it can be handled.

[0037]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows a cross section of a main part of a preferred embodiment of a disk enclosure according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 shows an end face shape on the connector side of the disk enclosure. FIG. 3 shows the internal structure of the disk enclosure of this embodiment with the housing cover removed. Also, the housing base in the present embodiment is shown in FIG. 4, FIG. 5 and FIG.
Shown in cross section and outside plan view. Similarly, FIGS. 7, 8 and 9 show an outer plan view, a sectional view and an inner plan view of the housing cover in this embodiment. In the figure, a disk enclosure 10 has an airtight enclosure structure in which various parts are built in a housing 11, and the housing 11 includes a housing base 12 and a housing cover 13, and a packing 14 is interposed between the two. The inside is an airtight room.

The housing base 12 and the housing cover 13 are formed by die-cast aluminum.
Electrodeposition coating having a thickness of about 20 μm is applied to the surface of each base 12 and cover 13 to prevent decoration on the outer surface, electrical insulation, and gas escaping from the die-casting pores on the inner surface. As is clear from the figure, the outer surfaces of the housing base 12 and the housing cover 13 in the present invention are formed flat, and the end faces are chamfered as required by reference numerals 12a and 13a, so that It has a shape that can be easily inserted into a pocket when carrying it. According to this aluminum metal housing,
It is possible to reliably prevent electromagnetic noise or electrostatic noise from entering the disk enclosure 10 from the outside.

The packing 14 is provided on the joint surface between the two bases 12 and the cover 13.
When the set 3 is screwed and fixed with the set screw 15, the internal airtight chamber can be sealed tightly. As the packing 14, for example, a fluorine-based rubber is preferable.

As shown in FIG. 4, a reinforcing rib 12b and a holding tube 12c are provided at a plurality of portions at the joint of the housing base 12 and the cover 13, while the base 12 of the housing cover 13 shown in FIG. Similarly, a plurality of reinforcing ribs 13b and a plurality of holding pins 13c are provided on a joint surface with the holding portions 12b and 12c.
c, 13b, 13c with the base 1 pressed against each other.
By combining the cover 2 and the cover 13, even when a large torsional force is applied to the disk enclosure 10 from the outside, the disk enclosure 10 can maintain sufficient strength in contact with the disk enclosure.

In the present invention, this disk enclosure has a small and thin shape, and is practically provided with dimensions of about 96 mm in the length direction, about 70 mm in the width direction, and about 8.5 mm in the thickness direction. Have been. Therefore, it is possible to provide a disk enclosure which is easy to handle and excellent in portability by such a thinned flat disk enclosure, and which can be arbitrarily attached to and detached from a computer. It is possible to easily make a computer program compatible with a plurality of computers.

Disk Enclosure 1 of the Present Invention
The internal structure of 0 will be described below.

2.5 in the disk enclosure 10
In the embodiment, a magnetic disk 16 having an outer diameter of 65 mm is built in the embodiment.
Has an inner diameter of 20 mm and a thickness of 0.889 mm. As is well known, magnetic recording layers are provided on both sides of a magnetic disk 16 made of an aluminum plate or a glass plate subjected to a hard treatment. In the present invention, both surfaces of the single magnetic disk 16 are 2,000 tpi or more and 55 Kbpi, respectively. High-density recording is performed at the recording density described above, and as a result, a format storage capacity of 43 megabytes is achieved even with a single disc.

A spindle motor 17 is housed in the disk enclosure 10 to drive the magnetic disk 16 to rotate at a high speed.
Forms a motor assembly that is detachable from the disk enclosure 10 and has a spindle motor base 18.
The outer periphery is set on the housing base 12 with a set screw 1
The screw 9 is fixed by screwing, and the inner periphery forms a bearing portion of the rotor. As is clear from FIG. 1, the rotor 20 is rotatably supported on the spindle motor base 18 by two bearings 21 and 22. In the present invention, the bearing height of the spindle motor 17 is a constraint condition for determining the thickness of the disk enclosure 10.
22 as small as possible, and the aforementioned 8.5 mm
This enables a disk enclosure 10 having a large thickness.
Although the miniaturization of the bearing causes a reduction in the life of the spindle motor 17, it is not fatal in the present invention, and according to the embodiment, the reduction of the life is controlled by setting the auto standby mode as a whole. The compensation is performed so that the life of the magnetic disk assembly device is not shortened. Bearing part 18 of the spindle motor base 18
a, a stator coil 23 is fixed to the outer periphery of the rotor magnet 20. On the other hand, the rotor magnet 2
4 is fixed. Therefore, if an exciting current is supplied to the stator coil 23 at a predetermined timing, the rotor magnet 2
4, the rotor 20 can be driven to rotate. In the embodiment, the stator coil 23 is U,
It consists of V and W three-phase coils. The rotation control of the spindle motor 17 is performed based on the detection of a back electromotive force signal generated by rotation of the stator coil and comparison with a reference frequency signal, whereby the rotation speed and rotation phase of the magnetic disk 16 are controlled. It is executed by servo control of a spindle motor controller provided in the controller circuit.

The magnetic disk 16 is positioned on the flange 20a of the rotor 20 via a disk spacer 25, and a disk clamper 27, which is firmly fixed to the magnetic disk 16 to the rotor 20 with a disk fixing screw 26, is tightened and fixed. ing. The disk spacer 25 allows the height of the magnetic disk 16 to be adjusted, and the disk clamper 27 is made of an aluminum dish-shaped member in the embodiment.

FIG. 10 is a plan view in which the spindle motor 17 has been removed from the housing 11 and the disk clamper 28 has been loosened to remove the magnetic disk 16 from the rotor 20. As is apparent from the figure, the spindle motor 17 is firmly fixed and held on the housing base 12 by three stop holes 18b, 18c and 18d. The spindle motor base 18 has the UVW
A groove 18e for guiding the lead wire 28 for supplying an exciting current to each of the stator coils is provided, and further, a relief groove 18f for preventing a lower read / write head described later from colliding is provided.

In the disk enclosure 10, a read / write head for reading / writing data from both sides of the hard disk 16 and the read / write head are transferred in the radial direction of the magnetic disk 16 to perform track following control on a predetermined track. A read / write head actuator is provided, and in the present invention, the actuator is a voice coil motor (VCM).
Having.

FIGS. 11 and 12 show a completed upper head block. Similarly, the lower head assembly has a similar structure, and a description thereof will be omitted.

In FIGS. 11 and 12, the completed upper head assembly 29 has a slider 31 supported at the tip of a suspension 30 made of a thin metal elastic plate. The slider 31 has a read / write gap as is well known. It is connected to a read / write amplifier circuit board to be described later by a read / write wire 32. A fixed bush 33 is press-fitted into the other end of the suspension 30, and an arm body of a VCM described later and the suspension 3
0 is firmly fixed by the fixing bush 33.

1 and 3, the read / write head actuator 34 is assembled to the lower yoke 35, and the actuator 34 can be removed from the housing base 12 together with the assembly, or assembled into the housing base 12 after being assembled independently. it can. FIG. 13 shows the VCM motor 34 taken out.
FIG. 14 shows an end face as viewed from the coil side.

The lower yoke 35 is made of, for example, an iron plate having a high magnetic permeability, has a substantially fan shape in the embodiment, and a VCM rotating shaft 36 is firmly fixed and held at a required position. This VCM rotating shaft 36 has two bearings 3
A bearing outer ring 39 is rotatably supported via the bearings 7 and 38, and an arm body 40 is firmly fixed and held on the outer periphery of the bearing outer ring 39 by bonding or the like. This arm body 40 is made of aluminum die-cast, and the above-mentioned fixed bush 33 is provided in its suspension support hole 40a.
VCM and head assembly 29 by press-fitting
And the connection structure is the same for the completed lower head assembly 46.

In the present invention, the arm body 40 is made as small and light as possible, whereby the mass and inertia of the read / write head actuator 34 are significantly reduced, and as a result, the thickness of the rotary support portion can be reduced. 10 became 8.5 mm or less in thickness.

Actually, the outer shape of the arm body 40 is reduced as much as possible, and
The CM coil 48 is also made as small as possible. VC
The M coil 48 has a substantially trapezoidal shape as shown in detail in FIG. 13, and the coil frame 47 is formed by integrally forming the VCM coil 48 and the arm body 40 into an outer body. It is formed as thin as possible to meet thickness restrictions. Under the VCM coil 48, as is apparent from FIG.
A VCM magnet 49 is fixed on the lower yoke 35,
The VCM magnet 49 has a VCM as shown by a broken line in FIG.
It is almost fan-shaped along the rotation locus of the CM coil 48,
It is magnetized in the opposite direction by half in the thickness direction. Therefore, different polarities are applied to both sides of the VCM coil 48, and a driving force in the same direction is generated.

A VCM upper yoke 50 is provided above the VCM coil 48. As shown in detail in FIG. 14, the upper yoke 50 has both ends press-fitted into the VCM lower yoke 35 by support legs 51 and 52. As a result, the distance between the yokes 35, 50 is accurately determined by the support legs 51, 52. As shown in FIG. 14, a stopper 53 made of elastic rubber is mounted around one of the support legs 52, and the stopper 53 of the coil frame 47 is received when the read / write head fully swings on the outer peripheral side of the magnetic disk 16. Part 47a
To prevent a destructive impact on the VCM coil or head.

In the embodiment, the read / write head employs a contact start / stop (CSS) system. When the apparatus is stopped or in a standby state, the read / write head is in the inner non-recording area of the inner circumference of the magnetic disk 16. It is held in contact with the magnetic disk 16. For this purpose, a lock pin 54 is integrally formed at the tail end of the coil frame 47 at the time of the outer molding described above.
A lock magnet 55 is fixed to the tail end of the M lower yoke 35. The lock magnet 55 is coated with an elastic resin 56 around the lock magnet 55 (FIG. 13). When the head is moved to the inner circumference of the disk by the VCM driving force at the time of the stop or standby as shown in FIG. The position is held by being attracted by the lock magnet 55.

Of course, according to such a magnetic attraction lock system, a slight VCM is required when the device is started for unlocking.
A large driving force must be supplied to the power supply, but a significantly large power saving effect can be obtained as a whole by using the above-mentioned auto standby mode.

In the present invention, a read / write amplifier circuit board is further built in the disk enclosure 10, and FIG. 3 shows a read / write amplifier circuit board 60 made of an FPC (flexible printed circuit). FIG. 15 is an exploded view of the FPC read / write amplifier circuit board 60 in the present embodiment. Although not shown in detail in the figure, the FPC board 60 is bonded and fixed to a supporting thin plate made of an aluminum thin plate. By fixing the supporting thin plate to the housing base 12, the FPC board 60 is firmly fixed and held in the housing 11. The rising wall indicated by reference numeral 61 in FIG. 3 shows a part of the supporting thin plate. After the FPC board 60 is bonded, the rising wall is bent, and the transmission of the drive system and the signal system to the VCM and the head is performed. Done. In FIG. 15, the lead 6
0a is the transmission F of the drive system and the signal system to the VCM and the head.
On the other hand, the lead portion 60b constitutes a transmission path of a drive system to the UVW three-phase spindle motor. A connector 60c at the end of the FPC board 60 is bent as shown in FIG. The lead portion 60a has a relatively long lead length, and can be loosened freely as shown in FIG.
It is considered that this deformation urging force does not give a large urging force to the VCM. However, even if such considerations are taken, the urging force of the FPC read portion 60a fluctuates depending on the rotation angle of the read / write head actuator, and is given to the VCM as a disturbance. A configuration for removing the disturbance will be described in detail in a VCM controller of a disk controller circuit described later.

Disk Enclosure 1 of the Present Invention
0 means that the user can carry it alone, so when carrying it or carelessly placing it near a noise source, electromagnetic noise or electrostatic noise may enter from outside and the surge voltage may damage the internal electric circuit. For this reason, in the present invention, the drive system such as the spindle motor and the VCM and the signal system of the read / write head constitute an earth system which is insulated independently of each other. In FIG. 15, the drive system ground is indicated by reference numeral 63, and a ground terminal 63 is provided.
a leads to the internal connector 62. On the other hand, the signal system ground is indicated by reference numeral 64, and this is guided from the terminal 64a to the internal connector 62 to the outside.

In this embodiment, as is apparent from FIG. 8, a small hole 13d is provided in a part of the housing cover 13 so that the inside of the disk enclosure 10 can be breathed. A filter 42 in which a desiccant 41 is enclosed is provided inside the corresponding housing cover 13, and the inside of the disk enclosure prevents dust from entering from outside when breathing, and at the same time dehumidifies the external air to remove the enclosure. Can be taken inside.

As described above, the magnetic disk 16, the spindle motor 17, the read / write head actuator 34, and the read / write amplifier board 60 are hermetically incorporated in the housing 11, and the disk enclosure 10 and an external disk controller circuit are provided. Is guided to the outside by the hermetically connected external connector 65. The external connector 65 has 20-pin terminals, and is firmly fixed to the housing base 12 in the embodiment by two setscrews 66 as shown in FIG. The receiving hole 65a of the connector 65
The inner wall forms a guide for the disk controller circuit.

FIG. 16 shows a cross section of the connector portion of the disk enclosure 10, and shows a state where the connector 67 of the disk controller circuit is connected to the external connector 65.

As described above, the read / write amplifier circuit board 60 is adhered to the supporting thin plate 61 and fixed to the housing base 12, and the connector portion 60c is fixed to the terminal of the internal connector 62 by soldering. Although the internal connector 62 is mounted on the housing base 12, since there is a gap between the internal connector 62 and the housing base 12 and each connector hole, the disk enclosure 1 itself is provided.
Therefore, the housing base 12 has a connector receiving portion 12d on an end face thereof, and the external connector 65 is mounted here. Each terminal of the external connector 65 is insert-molded and does not have a cavity itself, and the external connector 65 is fixed to the housing base 12 via a packing 68 to maintain the airtightness of the connector portion. Can be.
The terminals of the external connector 65 protrude on both sides, and the inside is in electrical contact with the internal connector 62, and the external terminal is in electrical contact with the connector 67 of the disk controller circuit. As described above, according to the present invention, the connector 65 is attached to the longitudinal end face of the disk enclosure 10.
Is provided, which makes it possible to extremely easily make an electrical connection with an external disk controller circuit. Although the configuration of the disk enclosure 10 according to the present invention is clear from the above description, a preferred embodiment of a disk enclosure frame for detachably inserting the disk enclosure 10 into a computer will be described below with reference to FIGS. It will be described based on.

A board 75 is provided inside a book-type or notebook-type computer (not shown in detail). In the embodiment, a disk enclosure frame 76 is firmly attached to the board 75 by fixing portions 76a and 76b. Screwed and fixed. The frame 76 constitutes a guide rail for attaching and detaching the disk enclosure 10 as shown by a chain line in FIG. 19, and a lock mechanism and an ejector mechanism of the disk enclosure 10 are incorporated therein. Before describing the detailed structure of the frame 76, the disk controller 77 provided at the back of the frame 76 will be described. This disk controller circuit 77 includes a substrate 78
, And is firmly fixed and held to the board 75 by a set screw 80 via a spacer 79, and the interface connector 81 of the disk controller circuit is electrically connected to the interface connector 82 provided on the board 75. . The substrate 78 has substantially the same width as the disk enclosure 10 and has a thickness substantially equal to that of the disk enclosure 10 with the circuit mounted. Therefore, according to the present invention, the circuits are continuously accommodated in the back part of the disk enclosure 10 in the computer, and the space utilization efficiency can be improved. Further, according to such a series connection type, the disk enclosure 10 and the connector 67 on the disk controller circuit 77 side are directly connected to each other when the disk enclosure 10 is inserted by using the connector provided on the longitudinal end face of the disk enclosure 10. This has the advantage that the connection operation shown in FIG. 16 can be performed very easily. In this embodiment, the periphery of the substrate 78 is covered by a shield plate 83 made of a conductive thin film in order to prevent noise from entering the disk controller circuit 77 from the outside. In the embodiment, a part of the shield plate 83 is bent. In the embodiment, the bent portions 83a and 83b are screwed and fixed to the spacer 79 by the set screw 80 at the same time as the substrate 78.

An ejector lever 85 is rotatably supported on an ejector shaft 84 fixedly mounted on the frame 76. An ejector plate 87 is mounted on a support pin 86 provided at the end of the ejector lever 85. The long groove 87
a for swinging support. A pair of ejectors 88 and 89 for ejecting the disk enclosure 10 are provided as a rising wall on the back surface of the ejector plate 87. In the embodiment, the pair of ejectors 88 and 89 It has a structure that engages with both ends of the external connector 65. Therefore, this ejector 8
By pushing out both ends of the connector 65 of the disk enclosure 10 by 8 and 89, the connector 65 of the disk enclosure 10 and the connector 67 of the disk controller circuit can be easily detached.

In order to operate the ejector lever 85 from the outside, a pin 90 is provided at the other end of the ejector lever 85, and the operating lever 91 is linked with the ejector lever 85 by the pin 90. The ejector plate is moved in the direction of arrow B when the user pushes in the direction of arrow D and then in the direction of arrow A by the user at first by pushing the operation knob 92 protruding to the outside of the computer, that is, to the outside of the computer. 10 can be easily discharged from the computer to the outside.

In the present embodiment, the operation lever 91 and the operation knob 92 also serve as a lock mechanism for locking the disk enclosure 10 at the mounting position. That is, in the embodiment, the operating knob 92 has a latch 92a at one end thereof, and the biasing spring 9 having one end fixed to the frame 76.
3, the latch 92a of the operation knob 92 is turned on by a spring when the disk enclosure 10 is inserted into the computer and is electrically connected to the disk controller circuit 77. The front of the disk enclosure 10 is latched by being pushed by 93, thereby reliably preventing the disk enclosure 10 from coming off the computer during normal use.

FIG. 20 shows a state in which the disk enclosure 10 is inserted into the disk enclosure frame 76. At this time, the disk enclosure 10 pushes back the operation knob 92 as shown by the arrow D by its tip, and is inserted into the frame 76. The inclined portion 92b provided on the front surface of the operation knob 92 is useful because it is pushed away by the disk enclosure 10.

The guide on the operation lever 91 side of the disk enclosure 10 is guided by a guide rail 94 shown by a broken line which rises from the frame 76, and an external connector 65 provided on an end face thereof is connected to the disk controller circuit. Side connector 67. In order to correctly position the disk enclosure 10 at the time of this connection, the inner wall of the external connector 65 is used as a positioning part as described above, and as shown in FIG. 10 is mounted on the frame 76 in a state where it is correctly positioned. FIG. 21 shows this mounting state, in which the disk enclosure 10 is no longer detached from the computer by the latch 92a.

FIG. 22 shows the discharging operation of the disk enclosure 10. The user moves the operation knob 92 to the arrow D side to move the latch 92a and the disk enclosure 1 together.
In this state, the operation knob 92 is pushed toward the inside of the computer as shown by the arrow A. As a result, the ejector lever 85 and the ejector plate 87 move as indicated by the arrow B, and the pair of ejectors 88 and 89 push out both ends of the external connector 65 of the disk enclosure 10 evenly, thereby quickly connecting the connectors. The disk enclosure 10 can be ejected from the computer to the outside while being removed smoothly and smoothly.

As described above, the disk enclosure 10 according to the present invention is detachably detached from the computer, and the user can carry the stored data arbitrarily.

As described above, the disk enclosure of the present invention has an extremely small and thin structure which has not been achieved conventionally. For this reason, according to the present invention, the spindle motor and the read / write head actuator are reduced in size and thickness. To cope with this, a circuit configuration suitable for the disk enclosure of the present invention is incorporated in each of the disk controller circuits 77.

First, the disk controller circuit includes an auto standby mode therein. As a result, in the embodiment, a state in which a read / write command is not sent from the host computer continues for a predetermined time, for example, 6 minutes.
When 0 seconds have elapsed, the standby mode is automatically set, whereby the rotation of the spindle motor is stopped, and even if the motor life is short, it is possible to sufficiently compensate for the useful life of the actual disk enclosure.

Also, by using this standby mode, the current consumption of the apparatus can be significantly reduced. For example, if the standby mode in which the spindle motor is stopped in this embodiment is used, the power consumption is reduced to 1/25 that of the normal read / write mode. It consumes and can exhibit an extremely excellent power saving effect.

Of course, in the present invention, the disk controller circuit 77 can select whether or not to set the auto standby mode by an instruction from the host computer, and does not select the standby mode depending on the contents of the host computer. It is also possible.

In the embodiment, such a mode setting has eight types of modes. Idle mode: A mode that always waits for a read / write command.

2. Standby 1 mode: Immediately after this command is input, the read / write head is locked inside the disk, the VCM motor is shut off, and only the spindle motor continues rotating.

3. Standby mode 2: This command stops the spindle motor in addition to the standby mode 1.

4. Sleep mode: shuts off all other power supplies except for command reception.

5. Idle / auto standby mode 1: The mode is temporarily set to the idle mode, and is switched to the standby mode 1 a predetermined time after the next command is received.

6. Idle / auto-standby mode 2: once set to the idle mode, and after receiving a command, shift to auto-standby mode 2.

7. Standby mode 1 / Autostandby mode 1: The standby mode 1 operates once by this command, and the standby mode 1 operates after a predetermined time elapses from the subsequent command application.

8. Standby mode 2 / Auto standby mode 2: The standby mode 2 is immediately executed by this command, and the auto standby mode 2 is executed by the time when no command comes after that.

As described above, according to the present invention, even if the life of the spindle motor is short, the use time of the disk enclosure can be set sufficiently long as a whole, and good power saving action can be obtained. .

Next, the structure and operation of a VCM controller for coping with the downsizing of the VCM motor according to the present invention will be described.

FIG. 23 is a block diagram of the VCM controller according to the present invention, and quick response control is performed by control using a state estimation system.

The characteristic features of the present invention are as follows:
The state estimation system is separated into a motion estimation system and a disturbance estimation system, whereby the present invention can surely compensate for the fact that the effect of disturbance increases proportionately when a small VCM is used. Becomes

In FIG. 23, a circuit block 100 represents the VCM of the disk enclosure according to the present invention in an equivalent circuit. The exciting current input from the zero-order hold circuit 101 is multiplied by a torque constant K by a current / torque converter 102. And supplied to the VCM as a torque signal. This signal is converted into acceleration, velocity, and position displacement through equivalent circuits 103, 104, and 105, respectively, and output again from the output-side zero-order hold circuit 106 as a read / write head actuator displacement signal. Disturbances are applied to the read / write head actuator, and these disturbances are caused in the circuit block 100 of the embodiment by the friction 107 of the rotary bearing, the position displacement 108 and the FPC lead portion 6.
It is shown as a biasing force 109 of 0a, and it is understood that disturbances represented by these three types are applied to the read / write head actuator.

In the present invention, a motion estimating system 110 which detects the input and output (displacement of the read / write head) applied to the actual read / write head actuator and estimates the motion of the read / write head actuator is provided. The disturbance estimating system 120 is provided separately.

The motion estimating system 110 and the disturbance estimating system 120 have ideally constructed circuits on the assumption that, for example, once a track is selected, a correct track following operation is performed for a motion. Similarly, in the disturbance estimation system, the movement of the head without any disturbance is ideally simulated. Therefore, if the outputs of both the motion estimation system 110 and the disturbance estimation system 120 are compared with the actual displacement output of the VCM equivalent circuit 100 described above, it becomes possible to obtain a correction value necessary for performing motion compensation and disturbance compensation. This can be reflected by the calculation circuit 130 on the command value of the next segment.

First, the motion estimation system 110
Circuits 111 and 11 equivalent to actual VCM at 00
2, 113 and 114.

What is important in this motion estimation system is that there is no external displacement such as 108 existing in the actual VCM equivalent circuit 100.

In the present invention, the VCM equivalent circuit 10
The displacement signal output from 0 through the zero-order hold circuit 106 is transmitted through the burst decoder 141 to the motion estimation system 11.
The output is compared with the ideal output of 0, and the result is fed back to the ideal block with feedback gains 115 and 116, respectively. Therefore, the difference between the ideal state and the actual state is output from the motion estimation system 110. In the embodiment, these motion correction values are output from the buffer 117 as position estimation values, and similarly, the buffer 118 Is output as an estimated speed.

A feature of the present invention is that the disturbance estimation system 120 is provided independently of the motion estimation system. Thus, only the disturbance estimation system 120 is provided alone. As described above, when the VCM is set to have a low mass and a low inertia, even if the influence ratio of the disturbance is large, it can be surely compensated.

In FIG. 23, 121, 122, 12
The blocks indicated by reference numerals 3 and 124 are equivalent to the VCM, and the disturbances 107 and 109 do not exist in these blocks, so that an ideal displacement without disturbance can be obtained.

As in the case of the motion estimation system 110, the result of the comparison between the output of the burst decoder 141 and the ideal output of the disturbance estimation system is multiplied by the gain 125 or 126 and fed back.

According to the embodiment, the displacement difference between the ideal state and the state with disturbance at this time is output as a disturbance estimation value through the converter 127 and the buffer 128.

In the embodiment, a command value 142 similar to that given to the equivalent circuit 100 of the actual VCM is supplied to the disturbance estimating system. As will be described later, a command value 143 from which the influence of disturbance has been removed is supplied.

Each of the estimated values obtained from the two estimation systems 110 and 120 can be reflected by the calculation circuit 130 on the command value of the next segment.

In the figure, the calculating circuit first calculates the position estimated value by subtracting it from the position target value, adds a gain 144 to the position estimated value, converts it to equivalent speed, and compares this output with the speed estimated value. The error signal is equivalently converted into an acceleration after a gain 145 such as DA conversion is added, and is further equivalently passed through a limiter 146 to further compensate the disturbance estimation value.
42 is output.

The motion command value 143 is output in a state where disturbance is further removed.

As described above, the VCM control in the present invention is performed by modern control in which both the motion estimation system and the disturbance estimation system are separately provided. Therefore, even if the VCM is lightweight and has low inertia, sufficient disturbance compensation is performed. Thus, the size and thickness of the disk enclosure can be reduced.

[0103]

As described above, according to the present invention,
Since the magnetic disk assembly apparatus is configured using a small and thin disk enclosure, a standard disk enclosure that is easy to carry and easy to handle and that is optimal for a book-type or notebook-type computer can be provided.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view of a main part of a disk enclosure showing a preferred embodiment of a magnetic disk assembly apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a sectional side view of the connector of the disk enclosure in the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a plan view showing the internal structure of the disk enclosure according to the embodiment with the cover of the disk enclosure removed;

FIG. 4 is a plan view showing the inside of a housing base in the embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a sectional view of a main part of a housing base in the embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a plan view showing an outer surface of a housing base in the embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a plan view showing the outer surface of the housing cover in the embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a sectional view of a main part of a housing cover in the embodiment.

FIG. 9 is a plan view showing the inner surface of the housing cover in the embodiment.

FIG. 10 is a plan view of the spindle motor in the embodiment with a clamper removed.

FIG. 11 is a plan view of a completed upper head assembly according to the present invention.

FIG. 12 is a front view of the head assembly shown in FIG. 11;

FIG. 13 is a plan view of the VCM assembly according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 14 is a side view of the VCM assembly shown in FIG. 13 as viewed from the tail end side.

FIG. 15 is a plan view showing a developed state of a read / write head amplifier circuit board mounted in the disk enclosure in the embodiment.

FIG. 16 is a sectional view showing a main part of a connector part of the disk enclosure in the embodiment.

FIG. 17 is a plan view of a disk controller circuit on the host computer side to which the disk enclosure is mounted and a disk enclosure frame to which the disk enclosure is removably mounted according to the embodiment.

18 is a sectional view of a main part of FIG. 17;

19 is a side view of the disk enclosure frame in FIG. 17 as viewed from the opening side.

FIG. 20 is an explanatory diagram showing a state where the disk enclosure is inserted into the frame in the embodiment.

FIG. 21 is an explanatory diagram showing a state where the disk enclosure is locked to the frame in the embodiment.

FIG. 22 is an explanatory diagram showing a state where the disk enclosure is ejected from the frame in the embodiment.

FIG. 23 is a circuit diagram showing a VCM controller of the disk controller circuit in the embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 10 disk enclosure 11 housing 12 housing base 13 housing cover 14 packing 16 magnetic disk 17 spindle motor 34 read / write head actuator 48 VCM coil 49 VCM magnet 54 lock pin 55 lock magnet 60 read / write amplifier circuit board 63 drive system ground 64 signal system ground 65 external connector 67 circuit side connector 76 disk enclosure frame 85 ejector lever 87 ejector plate 88, 89 ejector 91 operating lever 92 operating knob 93 biasing spring 100 VCM equivalent circuit 110 motion estimation system 120 disturbance estimation system

Continuation of the front page (56) References JP-A-3-62389 (JP, A) JP-A-3-71480 (JP, U) US Patent 5025336 (US, A) (58) Fields investigated (Int. ⁷ , DB name) G11B 33/12 313 G11B 25/04 101

Claims (9)

(57) [Claims] A disk controller circuit incorporated in a host computer for controlling read / write of a magnetic disk, and the disk controller circuit is electrically connectable and detachably detachable from the host computer. A disk enclosure having a magnetic disk capable of magnetically reading and writing recorded information therein, wherein the disk enclosure comprises at least the magnetic disk, a spindle motor that rotates the magnetic disk at high speed, and the magnetic disk. A read / write actuator for moving the read / write head in the radial direction of the disk and holding the read / write head stationary at a desired track position, a read / write amplifier circuit board, and a housing for housing these components in an airtight state, Magnetic disk The outer surface having a magnetic recording surface on both surfaces thereof has a size of about 65 mm, the spindle motor has a thin bearing, the read / write head actuator includes a low inertia small voice coil motor, and the housing has a substantially outer surface. Including a flat housing base, a housing cover having a substantially flat outer surface, and a packing for hermetically sealing between the bases and the covers,
The outer shape is set to about 96 mm in the length direction, about 70 mm in the width direction, and about 8.5 mm in the thickness direction. The electrical connection between the disk enclosure and the disk controller circuit on the host computer side is provided in the housing in an airtight state. A magnetic disk assembly device, which is performed through a connector provided. 2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the disk controller circuit controls a drive of the voice coil motor of the read / write head actuator.
A magnetic disk assembly device including a CM controller, wherein the VCM controller has a two-series electrical estimation system of a read / write head motion estimation system and a disturbance estimation system applied to the read / write head. 3. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said disk controller circuit has a spindle motor controller for driving and controlling a spindle motor, and said spindle motor controller is supplied with a disk control signal from a host computer for a predetermined time. A magnetic disk assembly device having an auto-standby mode for automatically controlling the device to a standby state when the device is not present. 4. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the external connection connector of the disk enclosure is located at an end face of the housing, is closer to the read / write head actuator with respect to the longitudinal direction of the housing, and extends along the width direction of the housing. A magnetic disk assembly device provided on a half surface side where the actuator is not disposed. 5. The apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the disk controller circuit is provided on a host computer side and in a depth portion into which the disk enclosure is inserted, with substantially the same width and thickness as an insertion hole of the disk enclosure. A magnetic disk assembly device comprising: 6. A disk controller circuit incorporated in a host computer for controlling read / write of a magnetic disk, and the disk controller circuit is electrically connectable and detachably detachable from the host computer. A disk enclosure including a magnetic disk capable of magnetically reading and writing recorded information therein, and a disk enclosure frame having an opening incorporated in a host computer and into which the disk enclosure is inserted, wherein the disk enclosure includes: At least the magnetic disk, a spindle motor that rotates the magnetic disk at a high speed, and a read / write actuator that moves a read / write head in the radial direction of the magnetic disk to hold the magnetic disk at a desired track position. A read / write amplifier circuit board, and a housing for housing these components in a hermetically sealed state, wherein the magnetic disk has a magnetic recording surface on both sides and an outer shape of about 65 mm in size; The read / write head actuator includes a low inertia small voice coil motor, the housing includes a housing base having a substantially flat outer surface, a housing cover having a substantially flat outer surface, and a housing cover between the base and the cover. And a gas-tight seal,
The outer shape is set to about 96 mm in the length direction, about 70 mm in the width direction, and about 8.5 mm in the thickness direction. The electrical connection between the disk enclosure and the disk controller circuit on the host computer side is provided in the housing in an airtight state. A magnetic disk assembly device, which is performed through a connector provided. 7. The apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the disk enclosure frame has a lock mechanism for holding the disk enclosure to the frame and an ejector mechanism for ejecting the disk enclosure from the frame. 8. The magnetic disk assembly device according to claim 7, wherein the ejector mechanism has a pair of ejectors for pushing out both side portions of the connector of the disk enclosure. 9. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the connector includes a drive system ground terminal for leading a ground potential of a drive system of the spindle motor and the read / write head actuator, and a signal system ground terminal for leading a read / write head ground potential. A magnetic disk assembly device wherein both are provided in a non-conductive state, and the disk controller circuit has a circuit for connecting the ground terminals to a common ground terminal when the disk enclosure is mounted.