Patent ID: 7121725

Claim:
A hydrodynamic bearing comprising a shaft with a thrust plate mounted at an end thereof, a sleeve mounted for rotation relative to the shaft, a counterplate supported from the sleeve and overlying the thrust plate, the shaft having a journal bearing defined between the shaft outer surface and an inner surface of the sleeve, a thrust bearing on a surface of the thrust plate between the thrust plate and the sleeve, each of the journal bearing and thrust bearing being established by fluid maintained and circulated in a gap between the shaft and thrust plate and the sleeve, the fluid being maintained in a gap which extends between the shaft and the sleeve and between axially upper and lower and radially outer surfaces of the thrust plate and the surrounding sleeve and counterplate and between the shaft and surrounding sleeve and a v-shaped region defined in the gap, wherein an axially upper surface of the thrust plate includes a thrust bearing defined thereon facing the counterplate, wherein the shaft extends through the thrust plate to face the counterplate, and wherein the V-shaped region is a countersink defined at the end of the shaft, coaxial with the center axis of the shaft, and radially interior to the thrust bearing.