ACTUATOR ARM WITH TAPERED TRAILING EDGE AND RECESSED HEAD CONDUCTOR

摘要

Apparatus for providing nominally laminar flow of air currents in a disc drive (100). An actuator (110) supports a head (120) adjacent a rotatable disc (108) and includes a rigid actuator arm (116) with opposing planar top and bottom surfaces (142, 144) and a pair of opposing tapered surfaces (146, 148) which taper to a trailing edge. The top, bottom and tapered surfaces define a cross-sectional enclosure (155) to provide nominally laminar flow of air currents adjacent the actuator arm (116) induced by rotation of the disc (108). A channel (154) is formed in the enclosure by a plurality of adjoining recessed surfaces (158, 160, 162) to at least partially recess a head conductor (154) along the length of the actuator arm (116) within the enclosure to prevent obstruction of the air currents by the conductor. The conductor (154) is preferably a flex circuit with a semi-flexible dielectric layer which supports a plurality of conductive traces.