Elongated trace tethers for disk drive head suspension flexures

摘要

An integrated lead flexure for a disk drive head suspension formed from layers of material including a spring metal layer, a conductive material layer and an insulating material layer between the spring metal and conductive material layers. One embodiment includes a gimbal region having flying traces and one or more elongated tethers extending from the spring metal layer and along a distance of the flying traces that is less than the length of the flying traces. Another embodiment includes a load beam spring region traversing portion having unsupported traces and one or more elongated tethers extending from the spring metal layer and along a distance of the unsupported traces that is less than the length of the unsupported traces.

主权项

1. An integrated lead flexure of the type including a spring metal layer, a conductive material layer and an insulating layer between the spring metal and conductive material layers, the flexure comprising:
first and second spaced-apart regions in the spring metal layer; an unsupported trace portion in the conductive material layer extending between the first and second spaced-apart regions, wherein the unsupported trace portion includes a width and a length and is not backed by the spring metal layer; an elongated trace tether in the spring metal layer connected to one of the first and second spaced-apart regions and having a length extending continuously along a distance of the unsupported trace portion that is less than the length of the unsupported trace portion, wherein the elongated trace tether has a width that is relatively narrow with respect to the corresponding width of the unsupported trace portion along the entire length of the elongated trace tether, wherein the unsupported trace portion is not supported by the spring metal layer except for one or more elongated trace tethers including the elongated trace tether; and an insulating material portion in the insulating layer between the unsupported trace portion and the elongated trace tether.