This application claims the benefit of Chinese Patent Application No. 201110079849.9, filed on Mar. 31, 2011, the entire content of which is hereby incorporated by reference in this application.
The present invention relates to a soldering device and, more particularly, to a soldering device for forming electrical solder connections in a disk drive unit.
Hard disk drives are common information storage devices. Referring to
Referring to
c shows a conventional suspension, the suspension 190 includes a load beam 106, a base plate 108, a hinge 107 and a flexure 105, all of which are assembled together.
The load beam 106 is connected to the base plate 108 by the hinge 107. A locating hole 112 is formed on the load beam 106 for aligning the load beam 106 with the flexure 105. And the load beam 106 is welded with the flexure for increasing the strength of the entire structure.
The base plate 108 is used to enhance structure stiffness of the whole HGA 150. A mounting hole. 113 is formed on one end of the base plate 108 for mounting the whole HGA 150 to the motor arm 104 (referring to
The flexure 105 is made of flexible material and runs from the hinge 107 to the load beam 106. The flexure 105 has a proximal end 119 adjacent the hinge 107 and a distal end 118 adjacent the load beam 106. A locating hole (not shown) is formed on the distal end 118 of the flexure 105 and aligned with the locating hole 112 of the load beam 106, thus obtaining a high assembly precision. A suspension tongue 116 is provided at the distal end 118 of the flexure 105 to carry the slider 103 thereon.
c shows a more detailed structure of the flexure 105 shown in
The following is a description of a solder ball connection method for connecting the slider 103 to the suspension tongue 116.
When carrying out a solder ball connection, the inclined HGA 150 is held by a holder (not shown) so that the connection surface 117a and the connection surface 116a of the suspension tongue 116 face each other substantially perpendicular and each of those connection surfaces 117a and 116a is inclined substantially at 45° relative to a line 115.
The conventional soldering device 180 commonly includes a nozzle device 181 and a solder ball feeding device (not shown). As shown in
In this state, the soldering device 180 applies a laser beam to the solder ball 135 through the inner hollow passage 183 of the nozzle device 181 so as to make the solder ball 135 reflow. The solder ball 135 is then melted in this reflowing, getting both connection surfaces 117a and 116a of the slider 103 and the suspension tongue 116 wet and connected together. The nitrogen gas supplied at this time presses the melted solder against each connection surfaces 117a, 116a and covers the solder so as to be prevented from oxidation.
In the conventional design of the nozzle device 181, the inner diameter of the nozzle 184 is configured smaller than that of the solder ball 135, so as to maintain the solder ball 135 at the nozzle 184. In addition, as the housing 182 of the nozzle device 181 is a unitary structure, thus the size of the inner diameter of the nozzle 184 is fixed. For reflowing the melted solder ball 135 to the connection surfaces 117a and 116a, the laser beam must be emitted before the solder ball 135 reflows. That is, the solder ball 135 is melted at the nozzle 184, which causes the melted material of the solder ball 135 contacts with the nozzle 184, in turn, brings residue of the solder ball at the inner wall of the nozzle 184 which affects the using quality of the nozzle device 180. For reducing the residue at the nozzle 184, a persistent laser beam should emit until all the material reaches the connection surfaces 117a and 116a. However, the energy of the laser beam is increased, which causes the high energy consumption.
Thus, there is a need for an improved soldering device to overcome the drawbacks mentioned above.
One aspect of the present invention is to provide a soldering device for forming electrical solder connections in a disk drive unit, which provides movable housings of the nozzle device, and in turn, makes the size of the nozzle controllable, finally benefits to perform a solder connection.
To achieve above objective, a soldering device for forming electrical solder connections in a disk drive unit, comprises a nozzle device comprising at least two separated movable housings that provides a passage, the upper ends of the housings form an entrance, and the lower ends of the housings form a nozzle; an actuating device connecting with the nozzle device and arranged for controlling the housings of the nozzle device to move together or apart, thereby controlling the inner diameter size of the nozzle; a solder ball feeding device operable to deliver a single solder ball to the passage via the entrance or the nozzle; a pressurized gas feeding device operable to supply pressurized gas to the passage, thereby controlling the dropping speed of the solder ball in the passage; and a laser generator operable to emit a laser beam through the passage, thereby melting and reflowing the solder ball.
As a preferred embodiment, the actuating device comprises a vertical actuator which includes at least two connection members fixed on the separated movable housings accordingly, and a sleeve engaging with the connection members outwards, which includes an upper opening and a lower opening, the nozzle protrude from the lower opening of the sleeve.
Preferably, the connection members have a conical outer surface, the sleeve has an upper opening, a lower opening and a conical inner surface, the conical outer surface of the connection members engages with the conical inner surface of the sleeve, and the nozzle protrude from the lower opening of the sleeve.
Preferably, the sleeve is stationary relative to the connection members, and the connection members with the housings operable to move up and down relative to the sleeve, the inner diameter of the nozzle will increase while the connection members move up, and decrease while the connection members move down.
Alternatively, the connection members with the housings are stationary relative to the sleeve, and the sleeve operable to move up and down relative to connection members, the inner diameter of the nozzle will increase while the sleeve moves down, and decrease while the sleeve moves up.
As another preferred embodiment, the actuating device comprises a horizontal actuator which includes at least two controlling members fixed on the separated movable housings accordingly, the inner diameter of the nozzle will increase while the horizontally controlling members move far away from each other, and decrease while the controlling members horizontally move toward each other.
As yet a preferred embodiment, further comprises a vacuum producing device operable to make the passage into vacuum state, so as to sucking in the solder ball positioned out of the nozzle.
Preferably, the inner diameter of the nozzle has a minimal size that is smaller than a diameter of the solder ball, while the housings of the nozzle device move together.
Preferably, the pressurized gas is an inert gas.
Preferably, the laser melts the solder ball before the solder ball drops down from the nozzle, with the housings are apart.
In comparison with the prior art, the present invention provides a nozzle device comprising two separated movable housings which can move together or apart by an actuating device, thus the inner diameter size of the nozzle is controllable to let the solder ball enter the passage via the upper entrance or the nozzle. Thus, the solder connection is easy to perform basing on this device. Additionally, as the inner diameter of the nozzle is controllable to allow the solder ball to enter from the nozzle, thus the laser beam can emit along with the dropping process of the solder ball; namely, the laser beam is emitted before the solder ball jetting out of the nozzle. Therefore, the inner wall of the nozzle will not be polluted and damaged without contacting the reflowing solder ball.
Other aspects, features, and advantages of this invention will become apparent from the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, which are a part of this disclosure and which illustrate, by way of example, principles of this invention.
The accompanying drawings facilitate an understanding of the various embodiments of this invention. In such drawings:
a is a perspective view of a conventional disk drive unit;
b is a perspective view of a conventional HGA;
c is a partial detailed plan view of the suspension tongue shown in
a is a partial view of the nozzle device shown in
b shows the separation status of the nozzle device of
c shows the closer status of the nozzle device of
a shows an actuating device according to a first embodiment of the present invention;
b shows a matching status of the actuating device and the nozzle device, which the nozzle becomes narrow;
c shows another matching status of the actuating device and the nozzle device, which the nozzle becomes wider;
a-13c show another actuating device according to a second embodiment of the present invention.
Various preferred embodiments of the invention will now be described with reference to the figures, wherein like reference numerals designate similar parts throughout the various views. As indicated above, the invention is directed to a soldering device for forming electrical solder connections in a disk drive unit, which provides movable housings of the nozzle device, and in turn, makes the size of the nozzle controllable, finally benefits to perform a solder connection.
Referring to
Now a detailed description of the soldering device 2 follows.
As shown in
a illustrates the actuating device 21 according to a first embodiment of the present invention, which cooperates with the nozzle device 20. The actuating device 21 is a vertical actuator, which includes two connection members 211, 213 and a sleeve 215. In particular, the two connection members 211, 213 are fixed on the upper portion of the housings 201, 203 respectively, which have a corresponding shape with the housings 201, 203. The connection members 211, 213 have conical outer surfaces 212, 214 respectively. As shown, the sleeve 215 has an upper opening 216, a lower opening 217 and a conical inner surface 218. Concretely, the shape of the sleeve 215 is corresponding with the two connecting members 211, 213. For engaging with the connection members 211, 213, the size of the sleeve 215 is configured fitly to be large. Particularly, after engaging with the connection member 211, 213 with the nozzle device 20, the conical outer surfaces 212, 214 of the connection members 211, 213 cooperate with the conical inner surface 218 of the sleeve 215, which makes the nozzle device 20 move up and down along the conical inner surface 218 of the sleeve 215, as illustrated in
As mentioned above,
When the connection members 211, 213 with the housings 201, 203 of the nozzle device 20 move up, the closer housings 201, 203 gradually move apart under the guiding of the acclivitous conical inner surface 218. In this moment, the inner diameter of the nozzle 205 increases, which benefits the solder ball 221 to enter the passage 208 via the wider nozzle 205.
Within a same contemplation, it also can design that the connection members 211, 213 with the housings 201, 203 are inactive and stationary in an up and down movement, and the sleeve 215 can move up and down relative to the connection members 211, 213. When the sleeve 215 moves down, the inner diameter of the nozzle 205 is broadened, when the sleeve 215 moves up, the inner diameter of the nozzle 205 is narrowed. As the size of the nozzle 205 is controllable, thus the solder ball 221 can be delivered via the upper end (namely the entrance 207) of the nozzle device 20 or the lower end (namely the nozzle 205) of the nozzle device 20.
Now a first soldering method using the soldering device 2 according to the present embodiment is described as following.
Referring to
As shown in
Preferably, the housings 201, 203 are maintained separation, and the solder ball 221 enters at the entrance 207. Meantime, the laser beam 241 is emitted during the dropping of the solder ball 221 in the passage 208. That is, the solder ball 221 is melted before jetting out of the nozzle 205. Particularly, as the solder ball 221 locates at the wider passage 208, and jets out of the nozzle 205 without contacting the inner wall thereof, thus the inner wall of the nozzle 205 will not be polluted and damaged.
The housings 201, 203 of the nozzle device 20 are actuated to move apart, with the nozzle 205 broadened. Thus the inner diameter of the nozzle 205 is larger than that of the solder ball 221, thereby causing the solder ball 221 to enter the passage 208 via the nozzle 205. Now, extract the air in the passage 208 of the nozzle device 20, so as to make the passage 208 into vacuum state. Under this case, the solder ball 221 out of the nozzle 205 is then sucked into the passage 208 at a predetermine height. Meanwhile, the pressurized gas feeding device 23 supplies an inert gas into the passage 208 of the nozzle device 20, so as to make the solder ball 221 drop down. During the dropping of the solder ball 221, emit the laser beam 241 to the solder ball 221, which makes the solder ball 221 melt along with the dropping process. The housings 201, 203 are apart each other during the melting and reflowing processes of the solder ball 221, that is, the inner diameter of the nozzle 205 is sufficiently larger than the solder ball 221 to allow it through without contacting the inner wall of the nozzle device 20. Thus, the melted solder ball 221 jets out from the nozzle 205 under the pressure of the inert gas, and reflows to the pre-welding members 291, 292 to achieve electrical solder connection.
As the inner diameter of the nozzle 205 is controllable, thus the solder ball 221 enters from the nozzle 205 by controlling the nozzle 205 wider, thus the laser beam 241 can emit along with the dropping process of the solder ball 221; namely, the laser beam 214 is emitted before the solder ball 221 jetting out of the nozzle 205. Therefore, the inner wall of the nozzle 205 will not be polluted and damaged without contacting the reflowing solder ball 221. Furthermore, the inert gas can be adjusted fitly to control the dropping speed of the solder ball 221, thereby melting the solder ball 221 more uniformly with the laser beam 241.
a-13c illustrate the actuating device 21 according to a second embodiment of the present invention, which cooperates with the nozzle device 20. The actuating device 21 is a horizontal actuator, which includes two controlling members 211′, 213′. In particular, the two controlling members 211′, 213′ are fixed on the upper portion of the housings 201, 203 of the nozzle device 20 respectively, which have a corresponding shape with the housings 201, 203 in this embodiment. The controlling members 211′, 213′ can move horizontally to change the inner diameter size of the nozzle 205. When the controlling members 211′, 213′ move toward each other along the arrow 281, the inner diameter of the nozzle 205 will decrease, and when the controlling members 211′, 213′ move far away from each other along the arrow 282, the inner diameter of the nozzle 205 will increase.
The same soldering methods can be used as above, which also can obtain the same advantages, thus the verbose description is omitted hereon.
The soldering device 20 of the present invention can apply to any connection needed to connect in the disk drive unit, for example, an electrical solder connection between a slider and a suspension of a HGA, an electrical solder connection between a grounding pin or a voice lead provided on a fantail spacer and a FPC (flex printed circuit), an electrical solder connection between a suspension flexure of a HGA and a FPC, or an electrical solder connection between a PCBA (printed circuit board assembly) and a FPC, and the like.
While the invention has been described in connection with what are presently considered to be the most practical and preferred embodiments, it is to be understood that the invention is not to be limited to the disclosed embodiments, but on the contrary, is intended to cover various modifications and equivalent arrangements included within the spirit and scope of the invention.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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201110079849.9 | Mar 2011 | CN | national |