Disk Drive Head Suspension Flexure Traces with Reduced Width Portions
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Current disk drive head suspensions with integrated lead flexures face challenges in achieving enhanced electrical performance while maintaining efficient manufacturing capabilities.
Innovation Solution
The development of integrated lead flexures with windowed or reduced width portions, featuring a metal base layer with apertures and conductive traces that have backed and unbacked portions, where the unbacked portions over apertures have a reduced width, minimizing material usage without compromising electrical performance.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of substance
If the conductive traces are made with reduced width portions over apertures, then material usage is reduced, but electrical performance may be compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The conductive traces are designed with varying widths along their length, with reduced width portions specifically over apertures and full width portions over grounded areas. This local variation in geometry allows the trace to have different electrical characteristics in different regions, reducing overall material usage while maintaining electrical performance where needed.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention changes the geometric parameter of the conductive trace (width) as a function of position. By varying the trace width from full width to reduced width and back to full width, the electrical parameters such as impedance and capacitance are modified locally, allowing material reduction without compromising overall electrical performance.
2Loss of substance
If the conductive traces have reduced width portions, then manufacturing complexity increases, but material costs decrease
Solution Approach 1:
The conductive trace is segmented into distinct portions along its length: full width portions, reduced width portions, and transition portions. This segmentation allows each section to be optimized independently for its specific function while maintaining manufacturability through standardized design rules for each segment type.
3Ease of manufacture
If the traces have reduced width portions, then the suspension becomes more commercially viable, but the electrical performance characteristics such as bandwidth and impedance are affected
Solution Approach 1:
The metal base layer with apertures acts as an intermediary structure between the conductive traces and the substrate. The interaction between the reduced width traces and the apertures in the metal base layer creates a controlled capacitive effect that compensates for the reduced trace width, maintaining electrical performance while reducing material usage.
Data Source
AI summary
An integrated lead flexure includes traces with windowed or reduced width portions. The flexure includes a metal base layer with a plurality of apertures, an insulating layer on the metal base layer, and one or more conductive traces formed on the insulating layer and extending over the metal base layer and the plurality of apertures. Backed portions of the one or more conductive traces that extend over the metal base layer have a first width, and unbacked portions of the one or more conductive traces that extend over the plurality of apertures have a second width that is less than the first width.