Patent ID: 8218268

Claim:
A head gimbal assembly (HGA) for use in a disk drive, the HGA comprising: a load beam; and a laminated flexure attached to the load beam, the laminated flexure including a support layer, a dielectric layer, and an electrically conductive layer that includes a plurality of electrically conductive traces defined in the electrically conductive layer, the dielectric layer being disposed between the support layer and the electrically conductive layer; and a head attached to the laminated flexure, the head including a plurality of electrically conductive bonding pads; wherein each of the plurality of electrically conductive traces includes a connection region that is aligned with and connected to a corresponding one of the plurality of electrically conductive bonding pads; wherein each of the plurality of electrically conductive traces further includes a heating pad that is offset from its connection region by an offset distance, the dielectric layer including a first opening over the heating pad, the support layer including a second opening over the heating pad, and the load beam including a third opening disposed over the heating pad.