Patent ID: 7369364

Claim:
A head gimbal assembly (HGA) for a hard disk drive ( 10 ), comprising: a flexure ( 22 ); a head slider ( 21 ) mounted on the flexure ( 22 ) and including a stainless steel lamina ( 40 ) with a front edge ( 48 ), a side ( 44 ), and a rear ( 50 ), and providing for a read pair (R−, R+) and a write pair (W−, W+) of electrical connections; a group of dielectric-material ridges ( 42 ) disposed on said stainless steel lamina ( 40 ), and set orthogonal to one another along the side ( 44 ), front ( 48 ), and rear ( 50 ) edges, all on an underside ( 46 ) of the head slider ( 21 ); a pair of dabs ( 52 ) of non-conductive epoxy generally disposed in the gaps between the front and side ones of the group of dielectric-material ridges ( 42 ) near said front edge ( 48 ), and having an electrical resistance in the range of 3K to 12M ohms; a pair of dabs ( 56 ) of conductive epoxy generally disposed in the gaps between the rear and side ones of the group of dielectric-material ridges ( 42 ) near said rear edge ( 50 ), and having an electrical resistance of less than fifty ohms, and subject to dielectric breakdown when impressed with 1-5 volts; and a read-write head ( 20 ) insulatively supported by the group of dielectric-material ridges ( 42 ), and structurally attached to the head slider ( 21 ) by the pair of dabs ( 52 ) of non-conductive epoxy, and grounded for electrostatic protection by the pair of dabs ( 56 ) of conductive epoxy; wherein, such construction reduces the head and the slider's exposure to severe electrostatic discharge (ESD) events and dissipates electrostatic voltage charges on the head.