Patent Application
20080068758
Disclosed is a hard disk drive with an actuator arm that discharges static charge from a disk. The actuator arm may be constructed from a corona discharger and/or a material that discharges static charge as the arm is moved across a disk. The disk is typically discharged before any read/write operation of the drive.
Referring to the drawings more particularly by reference numbers,
The disk drive 10 may include a plurality of heads 20 located adjacent to the disks 12. As shown in
Each head 20 may be gimbal mounted to a suspension arm 26. The suspension arms 26 are attached to an actuator arm 28 that is pivotally mounted to the base plate 16 by a bearing assembly 30. A voice coil 32 is attached to the actuator arm 28. The voice coil 32 is coupled to a magnet assembly 34 to create a voice coil motor (VCM) 36. Providing a current to the voice coil 32 will create a torque that swings the actuator arm 28 and moves the heads 20 across the disks 12.
The hard disk drive 10 may include a printed circuit board assembly 38 that includes a plurality of integrated circuits 40 coupled to a printed circuit board 42. The printed circuit board 42 is coupled to the voice coil 32, heads 20 and spindle motor 14 by wires (not shown).
The actuator arm 28 is constructed to discharge any static charge on the disk 12. By way of example, the actuator arm 28 may be constructed to contain Polonium 210 (Po-210) or Americium 241 (Am-241) which has other properties desirable for use as an actuator arm. The actuator arm 28 has an electrical potential so that the arm 28 discharges static charge when moved adjacent to the disk 12. The actuator arm 28 may be constructed to be a corona discharger that removes charge under the corona charge phenomenon.
The read/write channel circuit 58 is connected to a controller 64 through read and write channels 66 and 68, respectively, and read and write gates 70 and 72, respectively. The read gate 70 is enabled when data is to be read from the disks 12. The write gate 72 is to be enabled when writing data to the disks 12. The controller 64 may be a digital signal processor that operates in accordance with a software routine, including a routine(s) to write and read data from the disks 12. The read/write channel circuit 58 and controller 64 may also be connected to a motor control circuit 74 which controls the voice coil motor 36 and spindle motor 14 of the disk drive 10. The controller 64 may be connected to a memory device 76. By way of example, the device 76 may contain instructions that are read by the controller 64.
The actuator arms 28 are shown connected to a voltage source to create a voltage potential between the arms 28 and the disk. The voltage potential discharges static charge from the disks. The voltage potential may be ground.
The controller 64 may cause the actuator arms 24 to move across the disk 12 to discharge static charge before commencing any read or write operations. In this manner the disk is statically discharged before operation of the disk drive to insure that a static discharge does not damage the electrical circuits of the drive. The voltage potential on the actuator arms may be terminated when the drive is performing read and write operations.
While certain exemplary embodiments have been described and shown in the accompanying drawings, it is to be understood that such embodiments are merely illustrative of and not restrictive on the broad invention, and that this invention not be limited to the specific constructions and arrangements shown and described, since various other modifications may occur to those ordinarily skilled in the art.
