Fast polymeric thermal expansion for dual-stage actuation in hard disk drives

Author

Lau, G.K. ; Thubthimthong, Borriboon ; Yang, J.P. ; Tan, Cheng Peng ; Chong, N.B.

Author_Institution

Sch. of Mech. & Aerosp. Eng., Nanyang Technol. Univ., Singapore, Singapore

fYear

2012

fDate

Oct. 31 2012-Nov. 2 2012

Firstpage

1

Lastpage

2

Abstract

Polymer, such as SU8, is more thermally expandable than silicon, and it has a potential to build a more powerful thermal actuator. Yet, it is limited to by slow response time to electro thermal activation. In this work, polymeric composite thermal unimorphs have been built by integrating silicon heat fins in the polymer at small spacing (10μm). With a small heat capacity in each polymeric spacer, fast polymeric thermal expansion is demonstrated at a time constant less than 1ms. This polymer composite micro-actuator was used to drive a femto slider for fast dual-stage micro-actuation in hard disk drives.

Keywords

composite materials; disc drives; elemental semiconductors; hard discs; microactuators; polymers; position control; silicon; specific heat; thermal expansion; electrothermal activation; fast dual-stage microactuation; fast polymeric thermal expansion; femto slider; hard disk drives; heat capacity; polymer composite microactuator; polymeric composite thermal unimorphs; polymeric spacer; response time; silicon heat fins; thermal actuator; Actuators; Fabrication; Hard disks; Heating; Polymers; Silicon; Solids; Dual-stage actuation; composite design; hard disk drives; thermal micro-actuator;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

APMRC, 2012 Digest

Conference_Location

Singapore

Print_ISBN

978-1-4673-4734-1

Type

conf

Filename

6407553