Patent ID: 7903376
Filing Date: 2011-03-08
Classification: G11B

Abstract:
1. A disk drive, comprising: an enclosure; a disk rotatably mounted to the enclosure and having magnetic media; an actuator pivotally mounted to the enclosure and having an arm extending in a longitudinal direction and defining a lateral direction that is transverse to the longitudinal direction; a flexible cable secured to the actuator; a suspension mounted to the arm and having a transducer for reading data from the magnetic media; a flexure extending from the transducer to the arm, the flexure having a tail that is coupled to the flexible cable, the tail comprising a base layer for structural support, a dielectric layer formed on base layer for insulation and to improve signal integrity and minimize electromagnetic interaction with the base layer, a plurality of conductors formed on the dielectric layer for providing power and transmitting signals to the transducer, and a cover layer formed over the conductors on the dielectric layer; and a constrained layer damper (CLD) secured to and extending along the tail for attenuating vibration of the suspension, the CLD having a layer of damping material extending along surfaces of both the conductors and the cover layer, the damping material is equal in width to the cover layer, and a constraining layer for constraining the damping material; and the damping material encapsulates only one side of the conductors and the cover layer on the dielectric layer, the damping material does not encapsulate the dielectric layer, and the constraining layer extends laterally beyond a width of the damping material and the cover layer and extends to the dielectric layer.