JP3560920B2 - Disk drive suspension assembly - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
[Industrial applications]
The present invention generally relates to a head assembly of a magnetic disk drive, and more particularly to a connection structure for supplying a write signal to a magnetic head or extracting a signal read by the magnetic head to the outside of the magnetic disk drive.
[0002]
2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, the size and thickness of magnetic disk devices, which are one type of external storage devices for computers, have been reduced, and further reduction in power consumption has been demanded. In addition, an increase in the recording density of a magnetic disk is required to increase the capacity, and the number of disks mounted on the apparatus is increasing.
[0003]
[Prior art]
In a magnetic disk device for a computer, a contact start / stop (CSS) system is generally employed for a relationship between a head and a disk. In this method, during rotation of the disk, the head floats on the disk with a small gap between the floating force of the air fluid generated by the high-speed rotation and the pressing force of the suspension pressing the head against the disk.
[0004]
When the rotation of the disk stops, the head moves to a contactable area on the disk, where the head and the disk come into contact. While the disk stops rotating, the head and the disk remain in contact.
[0005]
Conventionally, a lead wire attached to a suspension has been used to supply a write signal to a head or take out a signal read by the head to the outside of the magnetic disk device.
[0006]
However, as magnetic disk drives have become downsized, the structure of the suspension has shifted from the type with a lead wire to the suspension with a conductor pattern in which the conductor pattern connected to the head is integrally formed on the surface. It is moving.
[0007]
In a conventional magnetic disk drive that employs a suspension with a conductor pattern, a main flexible printed wiring sheet (hereinafter referred to as a main FPC) for drawing out wiring to a printed wiring board provided outside the magnetic disk device is provided inside the device. .
[0008]
The terminal provided at the base end of the suspension and the terminal of the main FPC are connected by a lead wire. Since one end of the main FPC is fixed to the actuator arm by bonding or screwing, the lead wire is wired along the side surface of the actuator arm.
[0009]
Recently, a magnetoresistive head (MR head) has been developed as a head of a magnetic disk drive. The MR head uses an inductive element when writing data and uses a magnetoresistive element (MR element) when reading data. use.
[0010]
Therefore, the number of signal lines increases from two in a conventional general head to four. Therefore, when the terminals of the suspension and the terminals of the main FPC are connected by the lead wires as in the conventional case, the number of wiring assembly work steps is doubled.
[0011]
Further, since the number of terminals is increased, the space for installing the terminals of the suspension and the main FPC is required twice. However, since recent magnetic disk drives have been reduced in size and thickness, it has become difficult to secure terminal portions in a sufficient space, and the terminal portions have become smaller and the interval between adjacent terminals has to be reduced. .
[0012]
For the above reasons, it is not desirable to use a lead wire for connection between the suspension and the terminal of the main FPC, and a technique for connecting the suspension and the terminal of the main FPC by a flexible printed wiring sheet for relay (hereinafter referred to as a relay FPC) Has been proposed. In this conventional technique, a relay FPC is attached to a side surface of an actuator arm, and connects a conductor pattern of a suspension and a conductor pattern of a main FPC.
[0013]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
As described above, since the size and thickness of the magnetic disk device have recently been reduced, the actuator arm has also become thinner. Further, the number of signal lines accommodated in the relay FPC has been increased by adopting the MR head.
[0014]
Therefore, in the conventional method in which the relay FPC is attached to the side surface of the actuator arm, the width of the relay FPC becomes narrower as the thickness of the actuator arm becomes thinner, and it becomes difficult to secure a necessary number of signal lines. Problems such as a narrow pattern width of the signal line occur.
[0015]
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a head assembly and a suspension assembly capable of supplying and extracting a highly reliable head signal corresponding to a reduction in size and thickness of a disk drive.
[0016]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
According to the present invention, there is provided a suspension assembly attached to an actuator arm having a longitudinal plane extending substantially perpendicular to a rotation axis and a side surface extending substantially perpendicular to the longitudinal plane, the suspension assembly comprising: A suspension having a longitudinal major surface adapted to support; an extension having a support surface substantially parallel to the longitudinal major surface of the suspension and extending from the suspension; and receiving a plurality of signal lines. has a main surface of a sufficient width, it is attached along the side surface of the actuator arm between the upper and lower surfaces of the actuator arm, and a printed wiring sheet adapted to so that connected the the head and electrically The support surface is provided with the printed wiring sheet and the main surface of the printed wiring sheet. As schematically extend parallel to the longitudinal main surface of said suspension, said supporting the printed wiring sheet; as the main surface of the printed wiring sheet is parallel to the longitudinal plane schematic of the actuator arm, A suspension assembly is provided, wherein the printed wiring sheet is attached along the side surface of the actuator arm .
[0017]
Preferably, the extension is formed integrally with the suspension. The suspension has a conductor pattern adapted to be connected at one end to the head and the other end connected to the printed wiring sheet on the extension.
[0018]
BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION
FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a magnetic disk drive having a connection structure according to the present invention. Reference numeral 12 denotes a housing (disk enclosure) including a base 14 and a cover 16.
[0019]
On the base 14, a spindle hub (not shown) driven by an inner hub motor is provided. Magnetic disks 20 and spacers (not shown) are alternately inserted into the spindle hub, and a plurality of magnetic disks 20 are attached to the spindle hub at predetermined intervals by screwing the disk clamp 18 to the spindle hub.
[0020]
Reference numeral 22 denotes a rotary head actuator including an actuator arm assembly 26 and a magnetic circuit 28. The actuator arm assembly 26 is rotatably mounted around a shaft 24 fixed to the base 14, and has a plurality of actuator arms 30 extending in one direction from the center of rotation.
[0021]
The actuator arm assembly 26 has a coil 38 mounted on the side opposite to the actuator arm 30 with respect to the center of rotation, and the magnetic circuit 28 and the coil 38 constitute a voice coil motor 40. At the distal end of each actuator arm 30, a proximal end of a suspension 34 supporting a magnetic head 32 at the distal end is fixed.
[0022]
Reference numeral 42 denotes a main FPC for supplying a write signal to the magnetic head 32 and extracting a signal read by the magnetic head 32 to the outside of the device. Connected to the connector to be taken out.
[0023]
An annular packing assembly 43 is mounted on the base 14, and the inside of the housing 12 is sealed by screwing the cover 16 to the base 14 with the packing assembly 43 interposed therebetween.
[0024]
Referring to FIG. 2, a perspective view of the first embodiment of the present invention is shown. An end of the main FPC 42 is adhered to a side surface of the actuator arm 30, and a plurality of terminals 43 connected to the conductor pattern of the main FPC 42 are formed at the end.
[0025]
Referring to FIG. 3, a conductor pattern 36 having one end connected to a magnetic head 32 such as an MR head is formed on a suspension 34, and the other end of the conductor pattern 36 is connected to a plurality of terminals 37.
[0026]
When an MR head is employed as the magnetic head 32, the conductor pattern 36 includes four signal lines, and is therefore connected to four terminals 37. On the other hand, in the case of a normal inductive head, since the conductor pattern 36 includes two signal lines, two terminals 37 are provided for each head as shown in FIG.
[0027]
For example, the suspension 34 is formed of stainless steel, a polyimide is applied thereon to form a copper conductor pattern 36, and then the conductor pattern 36 is covered with polyimide again.
[0028]
Referring to FIG. 2 again, the terminal 37 of the suspension 34 and the terminal 43 of the main FPC 42 are connected by a relay FPC 44 mounted along the side surface of the actuator arm 30 and substantially parallel to the surface thereof.
[0029]
The relay FPC 44 is configured as shown in FIG. The relay FPC 44 has a plurality of conductor patterns 46, and both ends of each conductor pattern 46 are connected to terminals 47 and 48.
[0030]
The relay FPC 44 is mountain-folded along a broken line 50 extending in the longitudinal direction, cut in the longitudinal direction at a portion indicated by a solid line 52, and separated into an up-head FPC 44a and a down-head FPC 44b.
[0031]
The relay FPC 44 is further folded at the dashed lines 54 and 55. Then, the terminal 47 is connected to the terminal 37 of the suspension 34 by soldering, and the terminal 48 is connected to the terminal 43 of the main FPC 42 by soldering.
[0032]
Referring to FIG. 5, there is shown a perspective view of a second preferred embodiment of the present invention. In the first embodiment shown in FIG. 2, the relay FPC 44 is unstable because it is attached only along the side surface of the actuator arm 30.
[0033]
Therefore, in this embodiment, a protrusion 56 having a groove 57 extending substantially parallel to the surface is integrally formed on the side surface of each actuator arm 30. The relay FPC 44 is inserted into the groove 57.
[0034]
Since the relay FPC 44 is inserted into the groove 57 of the protrusion 56, the relay FPC 44 is stabilized. When the relay FPC 44 is fixed in the groove 57 with an adhesive, the relay FPC is further stabilized.
[0035]
Referring to FIG. 6, there is shown a perspective view of a third preferred embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, the FPC 58 in which the main FPC 42 and the relay FPC 44 of the first and second embodiments are integrated is used.
[0036]
That is, the intermediate portion of the FPC 58 is fixed to the side surface of the actuator arm 30, and the distal end side is cut and raised from the fixed portion to form distal end portions 58 a and 58 b extending substantially parallel to the surface of the actuator arm 30.
[0037]
The terminal formed at the end of the tip portion 58 a is connected to the terminal 37 of the suspension 34. On the other hand, the leading end portion 58b is folded in half similarly to the relay FPC 44 shown in FIG. 4, and the leading end portion is separated into an up-head FPC 58c and a down-head FPC 58d. Then, the terminal of the FPC 58c for the up head and the terminal of the FPC 58d for the down head are connected to the corresponding terminals of the suspension 34, respectively.
[0038]
Also in this embodiment, since the tip portions 58a and 58b of the FPC 58 are unstable, the tip portions are formed in the grooves 57 formed in the protrusions 56 of the actuator arms 30 as in the fourth embodiment shown in FIG. It is desirable to insert 58a and 58b. The tip portions 58a, 58b of the FPC 58 are stabilized in these grooves. If necessary, the tip portions 58a and 58b may be adhesively fixed in the grooves.
[0039]
FIG. 8 is a perspective view of the fifth embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, a guide block 60 made of resin or the like is adhered to the side surface of each actuator arm 30, and the tip portions 58 a and 58 b of the FPC 58 are supported by each guide block 60. Preferably, the ends of the respective tip portions 58a and 58b are bonded to the upper surface of the guide block 60.
[0040]
Thereby, the tip portions 58a and 58b of the FPC 58 are stabilized. However, if further stabilization is desired, as shown in the sixth embodiment of FIG. Insert the tip portions 58a and 58b into the holes.
[0041]
【The invention's effect】
Since the present invention is configured as described above in detail, there is an effect that it is possible to supply and extract a highly reliable head signal corresponding to a reduction in size and thickness of a disk device.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a magnetic disk drive.
FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the first embodiment.
FIG. 3 is a plan view of a suspension.
FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a relay FPC.
FIG. 5 is a perspective view of a second embodiment.
FIG. 6 is a perspective view of a third embodiment.
FIG. 7 is a perspective view of a fourth embodiment.
FIG. 8 is a perspective view of a fifth embodiment.
FIG. 9 is a perspective view of a sixth embodiment.
[Explanation of symbols]
30 Actuator arm 32 Magnetic head 34 Suspension 42 Main FPC
44 Relay FPC
56 Projecting part 58 Integrated FPC
58a, 58b Tip

Claims (3)

A suspension assembly attached to an actuator arm having a longitudinal plane extending substantially perpendicular to the axis of rotation and a side surface extending substantially perpendicular to the longitudinal plane ,
A suspension having a major longitudinal surface adapted to support a head; an extension having a support surface substantially parallel to the major longitudinal surface of the suspension and extending from the suspension;
Has a main surface of a sufficient width to accommodate a plurality of signal lines, wherein between the upper and lower surfaces of the actuator arm is attached along the side surface of the actuator arm, Ru is electrically connected to the head A printed wiring sheet adapted as described above ;
The support surface supports the printed wiring sheet such that the main surface of the printed wiring sheet extends substantially parallel to the longitudinal main surface of the suspension ;
A suspension assembly , wherein the printed wiring sheet is attached along the side surface of the actuator arm such that the main surface of the printed wiring sheet is substantially parallel to the longitudinal plane of the actuator arm . The suspension assembly according to claim 1, wherein the extension is formed integrally with the suspension . The suspension is adapted so that one end is connected to the head suspension according to claim 1, wherein the other end, characterized in that it has a connected conductive patterns on the printed wiring sheet on said extension portion Assembly .

Images