According to one embodiment, a suspension assembly includes a support plate, a trace member on the support plate and a drive element mounted on the trace member. The trace member includes a metal plate, and a multilayered member on the metal plate. The multilayered member includes a first insulating layer, a conductive layer stacked on the first insulating layer, a second insulating layer stacked on the conductive layer. The multilayered member includes a mount portion on which the drive element is mounted, and a branching portion arranged along the mount portion with a gap therebetween. At least one portion of the branching portion is formed into a thin portion having a thickness less than other portions of the multilayered member.

A disk drive head suspension or flexure and method of manufacture. Embodiments include a portion such as a terminal pad or flying lead comprising a base layer, a dielectric layer on the base layer, a conductor layer, a seed layer between the dielectric layer and the conductor layer, and a noncorrosive metal layer on the seed layer side of the conductor layer. The seed layer has a strip that extends beyond the edge of the dielectric layer. The noncorrosive metal layer extends over the strip of the seed layer and into contact with the edge of the dielectric layer.

A hard disk drive flexible printed circuit (FPC) includes a plurality of fingers extending from a main portion, with each finger having a thermally-conductive stiffener, at least one wiring layer over the stiffener, and a cover film over the at least one wiring layer, where the centroid of the stiffener is offset from the centerline of the cover film. Thus, utilizing the heat-sink characteristics of the stiffener, temperature differences among the upper and lower electrical pads of the FPC resulting from a heat-based interconnection procedure can be reduced and the temperatures across the FPC finger made more uniform, damage to the FPC prevented, and soldering yields improved.

A hard disk drive flexible printed circuit (FPC) includes a plurality of fingers extending from a main portion, with each finger having a first wiring layer including a first electrically conductive trace layout, a second wiring layer including a second electrically conductive trace layout, and a base film interposed between the first and second wiring layers, where the first conductive trace layout includes at least one thermally conductive protective island overlaying a respective portion of the second trace layout to provide a protective thermal barrier to the base film. Hence, maximum temperatures across various layers of the FPC laminate can be reduced, damage to the FPC prevented, and manufacturing yields improved.

According to one embodiment, a head actuator includes a first suspension assembly including a first support plate, a first wiring member with first wiring lines, and a first head, and a second suspension assembly including a second support plate, a second wiring member with second wiring lines, and a second head. The first wiring lines include at least four first read lines and at least four first write lines. The second wiring lines include at least four second read lines and at least four second write lines. At least two of the first read lines and at least two of the first write lines are arranged at a position offset to the second read lines and the second write lines in a width direction of the wiring member.

A disk-drive suspension includes a load beam, a flexure laid on top of the load beam, a first terminal provided on the flexure, and a first bump arranged on a top surface of the first terminal. The first terminal includes a narrow part having a first width in a first direction and including a center of the first terminal, and a wide part having a second width in the first direction greater than the first width. The wide part and the narrow part are arranged in a second direction intersecting the first direction. The first bump has, at the center, a first height from a bottom surface of the first terminal. The first height is greater than the first width.

Provided is a heat-dissipating, shock-absorbing structure which is applicable to an electronic module with a hard disk drive. The heat-dissipating, shock-absorbing structure includes a heat-dissipating frame, an elastomer, and a plurality of heat conduction layers. The heat-dissipating frame has a fixing segment and two extending segments. The extending segments connect with two ends of the fixing segment. The fixing segment connects with one side of the hard disk drive. The distance between the extending segments is greater than the thickness of the hard disk drive. At least a portion of the elastomer is disposed at the extending segments. The heat conduction layers cover the elastomer.

A hard disk drive suspension assembly includes a pad base layer, a pad-end fixing layer, and a plurality of electrical pads each comprising a conductive layer on the pad base layer, where the base layer extends to the fixing layer, to which a distal end of the base layer is fixed. This configuration inhibits the delamination or deformation of the end edge of each pad. An additional cover layer may be implemented to cover the distal end of the conductive layer(s), further inhibiting deformation of the pads. These techniques are especially relevant with narrow, high-density, small pitch electrical pads.

According to one embodiment, a head actuator includes a first suspension assembly including a first support plate, a first wiring member with first wiring lines, and a first head, and a second suspension assembly including a second support plate, a second wiring member with second wiring lines, and a second head. The first wiring lines include at least four first read lines and at least four first write lines. The second wiring lines include at least four second read lines and at least four second write lines. At least two of the first read lines and at least two of the first write lines are arranged at a position offset to the second read lines and the second write lines in a width direction of the wiring member.

A hard disk drive flexible printed circuit (FPC) includes a plurality of fingers extending from a main portion, with each finger having a thermally-conductive stiffener, at least one wiring layer over the stiffener, and a cover film over the at least one wiring layer, where the centroid of the stiffener is offset from the centerline of the cover film. Thus, utilizing the heat-sink characteristics of the stiffener, temperature differences among the upper and lower electrical pads of the FPC resulting from a heat-based interconnection procedure can be reduced and the temperatures across the FPC finger made more uniform, damage to the FPC prevented, and soldering yields improved.