One-piece flexure for small magnetic heads

Abstract

A gimbal formed integral with a load beam by through etching a H pattern at the end of the beam to define a pair of tabs connected by a pair of beams; half etching from the head direction one tab with an defined area masked to form a load button; and half etching the beam from the other direction to provide the proper gimbal stiffness. In practice, the head is glued to the other tab and load is applied through the button.

What is claimed is:  
     
         1 . A flexure for a slider for magnetic recording, the slider supported against a fluid bearing generated by relative motion between the slider and a moving magnetic surface, said flexure comprising 
 A) a mounting surface to attach the flexure to a mounting plate or a head positioning support arm,    B) a pair of compliant beams having first and second ends, the beams attached to the mounting surface at the first ends, 
 the beams lying substantially parallel to a longitudinal centerline of the flexure and being formed out of plane to provide a load force to react against hydrodynamic lifting force generated by the fluid bearing of the slider,  
   C) a reinforced rigid beam attached to the second ends of the compliant beams, 
 the rigid beam being of high bending stiffness to transfer the load force of the compliant beams to the slider with negligible distortion along the length of the rigid beam,  
   D) a gimbal section attached to the rigid beam opposite the compliant beams, 
 the gimbal section being substantially rectangular in shape and having an H-shaped opening with the two vertical legs of the H substantially parallel to the longitudinal centerline of the flexure and a cross member connecting the two vertical legs, 
 the H-shaped opening defining a rectangular slider mounting tab between the vertical legs of the H-shaped opening and on the side of the cross member of the H-shaped opening farthest from the rigid beam,  
 the H-shaped opening defining a rectangular load point tab between the vertical legs of the H-shaped opening and on the side of the cross member of the H-shaped opening closest to the rigid beam, 
 the load point tab being of reduced material thickness and having a load supporting protrusion located closely adjacent the cross member of the H-shaped opening,  
 
 
    the flexure mounting surface, compliant beams, rigid beam and gimbal section all formed from a single contiguous piece of resilient material.    
     
     
         2 . A flexure as claimed in  claim 1  wherein one surface of the load point tab is continuous with the corresponding surface of the rigid beam and the other surface of the load point tab is discontinuous with the corresponding surface of the rigid beam.  
     
     
         3 . A flexure as claimed in  claim 2  wherein the load supporting protrusion on the load point tab is raised above the load point tab surface that is discontinuous with the corresponding surface of the rigid beam.  
     
     
         4 . A flexure as claimed in  claim 3  wherein the load supporting protrusion is realized by forming the material of the load point tab.  
     
     
         5 . A flexure as claimed in  claim 3  wherein the load supporting protrusion is realized by isolating an area from the process used to reduce the thickness of the load point tab.  
     
     
         6 . A flexure as claimed in  claim 5  wherein the plan view shape of the load supporting protrusion is substantially circular.  
     
     
         7 . A flexure as claimed in  claim 5  wherein the plan view shape of the load supporting protrusion is substantially elliptical.  
     
     
         8 . A flexure as claimed in  claim 5  wherein the plan view shape of the load supporting protrusion is substantially oblong.  
     
     
         9 . A flexure as claimed in  claim 5  wherein the plan view shape of the load supporting protrusion is irregular in shape.  
     
     
         10 . A flexure as claimed in  claim 1  wherein the load supporting protrusion is located on the longitudinal centerline of the flexure.  
     
     
         11 . A flexure as claimed in  claim 1  wherein the load supporting protrusion is offset from the longitudinal centerline of the flexure.  
     
     
         12 . A flexure as claimed in  claim 11  including offset determination means for visually indicating the direction in which the load supporting protrusion is offset from the centerline.  
     
     
         13 . A flexure as claimed in  claim 12  wherein the offset determination means is integral to the flexure.  
     
     
         14 . A flexure as claimed in  claim 12  wherein the offset determination means is a hole located on the same side of the centerline as the load support protrusion.  
     
     
         15 . A flexure as claimed in  claim 3  wherein the load point tab is formed out-of-plane in the direction of the slider to such an extent that, when the attached slider is brought into cooperative arrangement with the surface of the disc, the load support protrusion will lie substantially in the same plane as the rigid beam.  
     
     
         16 . A flexure as claimed in  claim 2  wherein the material between the vertical legs of the H-shaped opening and the outer extreme of the gimbal section is of reduced material thickness.  
     
     
         17 . A flexure as claimed in  claim 16  wherein one surface of the material between the vertical legs of the H-shaped opening and the outer extreme of the gimbal section is smooth and continuous with one surface of the rigid beam and the other surface of the material in the same location is discontinuous with the surface of the rigid beam.  
     
     
         18 . An assembly for magnetic recording on a magnetic surface, the assembly made up of 
 a flexure comprising 
 A) a mounting surface to attach the flexure to a mounting plate or a head positioning support arm,  
 B) a pair of compliant beams having first and second ends, the beams attached to the mounting surface at the first ends,  
  the beams lying substantially parallel to a longitudinal centerline of the flexure and being formed out of plane to provide a load force to react against hydrodynamic lifting force generated by the fluid bearing of the slider,  
 C) a reinforced rigid beam attached to the second ends of the compliant beams,  
  the rigid beam being of high bending stiffness to transfer the load force of the compliant beams to the slider with negligible distortion along the length of the rigid beam,  
 D) a gimbal section attached to the rigid beam opposite the compliant beams,  
  the gimbal section being substantially rectangular in shape and having an H-shaped opening with the two vertical legs of the H substantially parallel to the longitudinal centerline of the flexure and a cross member connecting the two vertical legs,  
  the H-shaped opening defining a rectangular slider mounting tab between the vertical legs of the H-shaped opening and on the side of the cross member of the H-shaped opening farthest from the rigid beam,  
  the H-shaped opening defining a rectangular load point tab between the vertical legs of the H-shaped opening and on the side of the cross member of the H-shaped opening closest to the rigid beam, 
 the load point tab being of reduced material thickness and having a load supporting protrusion located closely adjacent the cross member of the H-shaped opening,  
 
 the flexure mounting surface, compliant beams, rigid beam and gimbal section all formed from a single contiguous piece of resilient material, and  
   an air bearing slider attached to the slider mounting tab.    
     
     
         19 . An assembly as claimed in  claim 18  wherein the load supporting protrusion directly contacts the slider.  
     
     
         20 . An assembly as claimed in  claim 19  wherein the slider is subtantially centered within the gimbal section.  
     
     
         21 . An assembly as claimed in  claim 20  wherein the slider has substantially the same length and width as the H-shaped opening.  
     
     
         22 . A flexure as claimed in  claim 1  wherein the rigid beam is in the form of a truncated acute isosceles triangle, with the base of the triangle attached to the compliant beams and the sides formed out of plane in the shape of channels.  
     
     
         23 . A disc drive magnetic head mounting gimbal comprising a load point button formed by partially etching away surrounding material.  
     
     
         24 . An disc drive magnetic head mounting flexure with integral gimbal comprising: 
 a load beam;    a first tab integral with said load beam having an integral button formed by an etching process, said button facing a first, head direction;    a second tab longitudinally spaced from said first tab, the second tab providing a head mounting surface in said head direction; and    a pair of partially etched beams connecting said first and second tabs.    
     
     
         25 . A method of making the disc drive magnetic head mounting flexure of  claim 1  comprising: 
 through-ecthing an H-pattern at the end of a load beam to define the tabs and connecting beams;  
 half-etching from the head direction the first tab after first having masked the button area so that it remains unetched; and  
 half-etching said connecting beams from a second direction, opposite said head direction.  
 
     
     
         26 . The method of making the disc drive magnetic flexure of  claim 25  further including: 
 forming a slight bend in the first tab towards said head direction.  
 
     
     
         27 . The method of making the disc drive magnetic flexure of  claim 25  further comprising: 
 forming a radius on the load button.  
 
     
     
         28 . The method of making the disc drive flexure of  claim 25  further including: 
 through-etching a head observation hole in said first tab adjacent said load beam.