Separated pivot-shaft actuator for small skew angle in hard disk drives

A large skew angle in a hard disk drive (HDD) adversely affects the flying stability of the head sliders and the off-track capability of the read/write head. A novel actuator in the form of a separated pivot-shaft actuator (SPA) with a small skew angle is proposed in this paper. The SPA was particularly designed for a four-disk 3.5-in. HDD and has a skew angle of ±1.6°, which is approximately one-tenth of that of a conventional voice coil motor. The SPA was numerically analyzed by a finite element method, and its mechanical characteristics were compared with those of a long-arm actuator (LAA) (which is a strong candidate for a small-skew-angle actuator) with respect to the seek performance and frequency response. It was found that the SPA had a higher resonant frequency, which enabled the achievement of a wider servo-bandwidth compared to the LAA, and that the average seek time of the SPA was significantly shorter than that of the LAA.