Temperature control apparatus for a hard disk drive and a method of varying the temperature of a hard disk drive

Abstract

A temperature control apparatus for a hard disk drive includes: a thermal chamber for receiving a hard disk drive; and an oscillatory air movement generator for generating air movement within a region between the thermal chamber and the hard disk drive when received in the thermal chamber, thereby to facilitate heat transfer between the thermal chamber and the hard disk drive.

1 . A temperature control apparatus for a hard disk drive, the apparatus comprising:
 a thermal chamber for receiving a hard disk drive; and   an oscillatory air movement generator for generating air movement within a region between the thermal chamber and a said hard disk drive when received in the thermal chamber, thereby to facilitate heat transfer between the thermal chamber and a said hard disk drive   wherein the heat transfer between the thermal chamber and the said hard disk drive is at least in part effected by conduction.   
     
     
         2 . An apparatus according to  claim 1 , wherein the oscillatory air movement generator comprises a diaphragm driven in an oscillatory manner by a driver. 
     
     
         3 . An apparatus according to  claim 2 , wherein there is actual physical contact between the thermal chamber and the said hard disk drive to enable the conductive heat transfer. 
     
     
         4 . An apparatus according to  claim 1 , wherein the oscillatory air movement generator is a piezo-electric element. 
     
     
         5 . An apparatus according to  claim 1 , comprising a heat pump in thermal communication with the thermal chamber for pumping heat to and from the thermal chamber. 
     
     
         6 . An apparatus according to  claim 5 , wherein the heat pump is a peltier heat pump. 
     
     
         7 . An apparatus according to  claim 5 , comprising a heat exchanger coupled to the heat pump selectively to provide heat to or receive heat from the heat pump. 
     
     
         8 . An apparatus according to  claim 7 , comprising a heat pipe to transfer heat from the pump to the heat exchanger and vice versa. 
     
     
         9 . An apparatus according to  claim 1 , comprising a hard disk drive arranged within the thermal chamber. 
     
     
         10 . An apparatus according to  claim 2 , comprising:
 plural thermal chambers each for receiving a respective hard disk drive; and,   an oscillatory air movement generator for generating air movement in a region between each of the thermal chambers and a said hard disk drive when received in each of the thermal chambers thereby to facilitate heat transfer between a said hard disk drive arranged in use within each of the thermal chambers and the respective thermal chamber   wherein the heat transfer between the thermal chamber and the said hard disk drive is at least in part effected by conduction.   
     
     
         11 . An apparatus according to  claim 10 , comprising baffles arranged between respective thermal chambers thereby limiting thermal interaction between thermal chambers. 
     
     
         12 . An apparatus according to  claim 10 , comprising a respective heat pump for each of the plural thermal chambers. 
     
     
         13 . An apparatus according to  claim 10 , comprising a unitary oscillatory air movement generator for generating the air movement for one or more of the thermal chambers. 
     
     
         14 . An apparatus according to  claim 10 , comprising a framework for receiving each of the plural thermal chambers and maintaining said plural thermal chambers in a substantially fixed spatial relationship to each other. 
     
     
         15 . A hard disk drive test apparatus comprising a temperature control apparatus according to  claim 1 . 
     
     
         16 . (canceled) 
     
     
         17 . A method of testing one or more hard disk drives when arranged in a hard disk drive test apparatus according to  claim 15 , the method comprising:
 generating non-mass flow air movement between the or each hard disk drive and the or each corresponding thermal chamber to facilitate efficient heat transfer between the or each hard disk drive and the or each corresponding thermal chamber.   
     
     
         18 . A method according to  claim 17 , wherein there are plural thermal chambers, the method comprising:
 independently controlling the temperatures of the thermal chambers so that different ones of the plural hard disk drives may be controlled to be at corresponding different temperatures.   
     
     
         19 . (canceled) 
     
     
         20 . Apparatus according to  claim 10 , wherein there is actual physical contact between the thermal chamber and the said hard disk drive to enable the conductive heat transfer.