Precise positioning actuator for head element, head gimbal assembly with the actuator and disk drive apparatus with the head gimbal assembly

Abstract

A precise positioning actuator for precisely positioning at least one head element is provided with a base and a pair of movable arms capable of displacing in response to a drive signal applied to the actuator. The pair of movable arms extend from the base for catching a head slider with at least one head element in a space between the pair of movable arms. Each of the pair of movable arms includes an arm member made of an elastic sintered ceramic and having substantially the same cross sectional shape from a root thereof to a top end thereof, a piezoelectric element formed on a side surface of the arm member and a protrusion additionally formed on an inside surface of the arm member near its top end section. The protrusion has tapered surfaces. Side surfaces of the head slider are adhered to the inside surfaces of the arm members at the protrusions and within regions between the protrusions and top ends of the arm members.

Description

technical field [0001] The present invention relates to a fine positioning actuator for a head element, such as a thin film magnetic head element or an optical head element, to a head gimbal assembly (HGA) having said actuator and to a head gimbal assembly (HGA) having said HGA disk drive device. Background technique [0002] In disk drives, thin-film magnetic head elements for writing and / or reading magnetic information to and from a disk are typically formed on a head slider that floats on a rotating above the disk. The sliders are supported at top end portions of suspensions of the HGA, respectively. [0003] In recent years, the recording and reproducing density (track density) in the radial direction or along the track width direction in magnetic disks has increased dramatically to meet the demands of increasing data storage capacity and density in today's disk drive devices. Control of the position of the head element relative to the tracks in the magnetic disk by v...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

Therefore, it is difficult to obtain sufficient stroke;

[0010] (4) Due to the three-dimensional and complicated attachment structure of the actuator, the handling at the time of assembly of the HGA is very difficult and cannot use conventional HGA assembly equipment so that the productivity is very poor;

[0014] However, according to the actuator described in Japanese Patent Document 2002074870A, since the slider fixing portion made of the same sintered ceramic protrudes inward from the surface of the movable arm, the applied shock is concentrated on the corner at the base of the protrusion The resulting stress makes the corners susceptible to cracking

It is very difficult to greatly increase the shock resistance of the actuator

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