Suspension with strengthening plate, head gimbal assembly, and disk drive unit with the same

Abstract

A suspension for a HGA includes a base plate, a flexure having a suspension tongue for holding a slider, a load beam, and a hinge that are assembled together; wherein a strengthening plate is formed on the suspension tongue to increase stiffness of the suspension tongue. So the invention enable the use of the suspension with lower pitch and roll stiffness while preventing the suspension deformation. This ensures the slider mounted on the suspension have a good flying performance. The invention also discloses a HGA with such a suspension and a disk drive unit having such an HGA.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 a shows a partial view of a conventional disk drive unit;

FIG. 1 b is a perspective view of a HGA of the disk drive unit shown in FIG. 1a;

FIG. 1 c is an enlarged, partial side perspective view of the HGA of FIG. 1b showing a suspension tongue thereof in detail;

FIG. 1 d is an assembled, perspective view of a micro-actuator and a slider of the HGA shown in FIG. 1c;

FIG. 1 e is a diagrammatic view showing the deformation of the suspension tongue shown in FIG. 1c;

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a HGA according to a first embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is an assembled, perspective view of a suspension of the HGA of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a partial perspective view of the HGA of FIG. 2 showing the region where a suspension tongue of the HGA lies in greater detail;

FIG. 5 is an exploded, perspective view of the suspension of FIG. 3;

FIG. 6 is a side perspective view of FIG. 4;

FIG. 7 is a perspective view of a micro-actuator of the HGA of FIG. 2;

FIG. 8 is a sectional view of a strengthening plate formed on the suspension of FIG. 3;

FIG. 9 is a perspective view of an embodiment of a frame for the micro-actuator of the HGA;

FIG. 10 is a perspective view of another embodiment of a frame for the micro-actuator of the HGA;

FIGS. 11-15 are partial plan views of five distinct embodiments of a flexure for the suspension; and

FIG. 16 is a perspective view of an embodiment of a disk drive unit including the HGA of FIG. 2.

Claims

1. A suspension for a head gimbal assembly comprising: a base plate, a flexure having a suspension tongue for holding a slider, a load beam, and a hinge that are assembled together; wherein a strengthening plate is formed on the suspension tongue to increase stiffness of the suspension tongue.

2. The suspension as claimed in claim 1, wherein the strengthening plate is integrally formed, or assembled with a plurality of bar bodies.

3. The suspension as claimed in claim 1, wherein at least one groove is formed in the strengthening plate for lightening the suspension.

4. The suspension as claimed in claim 4, wherein a plurality of clearances are defined between the adjacent bar bodies for lightening the suspension.

5. The suspension as claimed in claim 1, wherein a plurality of electrical pads are formed on the flexure at positions adjacent to two opposite sides of the strengthening plate, and a plurality of electrical traces are integrally formed on the strengthening plate for connecting the electrical pads.

6. The suspension as claimed in claim 1, wherein the strengthening plate extends from a leading end to a trailing end of the suspension tongue, which comprises a cover layer, a substrate layer, and an electric layer sandwiched between the cover layer and the substrate layer; and the cover layer, the substrate layer, and the electric layer form a protrusion with a certain thickness to support the micro-actuator.

7. The suspension as claimed in claim 7, wherein a plurality of island bumps are formed at the leading end of the suspension tongue, and the island bumps define a region in which at least one hole is formed.

8. A head gimbal assembly comprising: a slider;a micro-actuator; anda suspension for supporting the slider and the micro-actuator; wherein the suspension comprises a base plate, a flexure having a suspension tongue for holding a slider, a load beam, and a hinge that are assembled together; whereina strengthening plate is formed on the suspension tongue to increase stiffness of the suspension tongue.

9. The head gimbal assembly as claimed in claim 9, wherein the strengthening plate is integrally formed, or assembled with a plurality of bar bodies.

10. The head gimbal assembly as claimed in claim 9, wherein at least one groove is defined in the strengthening plate for lightening the suspension.

11. The head gimbal assembly as claimed in claim 12, wherein a plurality of clearances are defined between the adjacent bar bodies for lightening the suspension.

12. The head gimbal assembly as claimed in claim 9, wherein a plurality of electrical pads are formed on the flexure at positions adjacent to two opposite sides of the strengthening plate, and a plurality of electrical traces are integrally formed on the strengthening plate for connecting the electrical pads.

13. The head gimbal assembly as claimed in claim 9, wherein the strengthening plate extends from a leading end to a trailing end of the suspension tongue, which comprises a cover layer, a substrate layer, and an electric layer sandwiched between the cover layer and the substrate layer; and the cover layer, the substrate layer, and the electric layer form a protrusion with a certain thickness to support the micro-actuator.

14. The head gimbal assembly as claimed in claim 15, wherein a plurality of island bumps are formed at the leading end of the suspension tongue, and the island bumps define a region in which at least one hole is formed for increasing binding strength between the suspension tongue and the micro-actuator.

15. The head gimbal assembly as claimed in claim 13, wherein the flexure has a thickness less than 22 μm; and the cover layer is upper PI layer, the substrate layer is lower PI layer, and the electric layer is copper layer; the copper layer is sandwiched between the lower and the upper PI layers, the thickness of the lower PI layer is 5-10 μm, the thickness of the upper PI layer is 3-5 μm, and the copper layer is about 8-15 μm in thickness.

16. A disk drive unit comprising: a head gimbal assembly;a drive arm to connect with the head gimbal assembly;a disk; anda spindle motor to spin the disk;wherein the head gimbal assembly comprises: a slider;a micro-actuator; anda suspension for supporting the slider and the micro-actuator; wherein the suspension comprises a base plate, a flexure having a suspension tongue for holding a slider, a load beam, and a hinge that are assembled together; whereina strengthening plate is formed on the suspension tongue to increase stiffness of the suspension tongue.