on the cover, and isolating the disk spindle assembly and the head actuator on the base plate.

Another method is to use a mini-speaker inside the drive housing to simulate drive noise sources. The speaker can be driven by a recorded noise signal to evaluate the airborne noise transmission performance of the drive housing. The noise transmission from the base plate to the circuit board also includes a combination of structureborne and airborne paths. The vibration of the base plate can be transmitted to the circuit board through screw mounts, and amplified by the resonances of the circuit board. The cavity between the base plate and circuit board serves as an airborne transmission path, and an acoustic amplifier due to reverberation effects.

also improve the acoustic absorption ability of these materials to make the treatments even more effective in reducing noise from the PCB-side of the drive. An example of one such material is the Roush Anatrol RA205TM Damped Foam. As for the case of the top cover, some form of constrained layer damping treatment has long since been used on disk drives to eliminate resonances of the flimsy top cover components. This can be achieved in one of two ways: (1) an add-on metal layer bonded to the top cover with a vis-

range typical of disk drive applications. One characteristic unique to viscoelastic materials is that the damping and stiffness properties are frequency and temperature dependent. This implies that the specific temperature and frequency range of a particular application must be clearly defined in order to select a material that will be properly optimized. This also assumes that the material properties have been defined in terms of the complex modulus. Through the years, Roush Anatrol has maintained an extensive database

Add-On CLD

NOISE CONTROL OPTIONS OF HARD DISK DRIVES

As discussed above, reductions in noise levels can be accomplished at the noise source level and dealing with transmission paths of the noise. The most effective method is to reduce noise source levels directly, although this is usually a difficult task. Damping treatments and isolation methods are two practical approaches in drive applications where the drive size is a main constraint. Particularly, passive viscoelastic damping treatments have been extensively used to reduce vibrations and noises in todays hard drives. A basic understanding of the passive damping technology is essential to successfully incorporating damping materials into hard drives. Much research work has been done on the subject of passive damping in the past forty years, predominately in other industries. Work conducted in the aircraft industry is where much of the fundamental technology was developed, and it has been the automotive industry that has made these types of treatments affordable. The success of these viscoelastic-based, surface damping treatments, typically classified as constrained layer and free layer damping treatments, hinged on the development of a wide variety of viscoelastic materials that possess a variety of unique properties. Examples of two of the most common forms of damping treatments commonly used in disk drives today are shown in Figure 2. These treatments include PCB dampers and constrained layer dampers (CLDs) for top covers. The PCB damper treatments were originally selected to provide damping to the many resonances of the printed circuit board component, which tended to act like a speaker amplifying the unwanted noise. Many of these materials were partially closed cell polyurethane foams with low air permeability behavior that created the viscoelastic damping effect in the material. Recent work has been done to

VCM Damper

PCB Damper

FIGURE 2 Typical Noise Control Treatments used on Disk Drives.

FIGURE 3 Comparison of the Idle Noise on the Cover Side with and without the Damping Treatment for a Typical Disk Drive

coelastic material properly selected for the specific application, or (2) stamping the part itself from a laminated, metal composite consisting of two metal outer layers with a viscoelastic core. One such example of this material is Roush Anatrols Dynalam 980 laminated metal, which is available in a wide variety of sheet metal types and thickness gage. This laminate utilizes the RA980 damped adhesive, which has been specifically designed for the temperature and frequency

of commercially available viscoelastic materials that are used in the development of various vibration control devices for many industries. For the hard drive industry, material cleanliness is a critical issue. Typical viscoelastic materials are solvent-based polymers coated onto metal or transfer film. Much of the volatile solvents are driven off during processing, but a certain percent is retained which could leak out of the material over time (called outgassing) depositing on the disk media. Ex-

tremely low levels of outgassing performance are required when materials are used inside drives. Roush Anatrol has done much work to develop materials that possess excellent damping performance while meeting these types of environmental specifications. A well-designed damping treatment significantly reduces the noise radiated from the cover side. Figure 3 shows that the idle noise is reduced by 8.3 dBA on the damped cover side for a typical disk drive. It should be noted that the damping only reduces the resonant responses of the treated component. Therefore, the damped cover has little effect in reducing forced vibration transmitted to the top cover by way of internal resonances excited during seek operation. For example, unless specific forcing frequencies align with instabilities in the top cover, the damped cover will produce only marginal energy dissipation. The constrained layer damping treatment is rarely applied on the base plate component since it does not possess much resonant behavior. In general, viscoelastic damping can be effective anywhere there is relative motion between components. Other forms of damping treatments have been used with much success at other locations within the drive to attack seek noise issues specifically. Viscoelastic treatments have been applied between the VCM housing and top and bottom covers to damp out resonances of this component. Add-on treatments have been applied to the read/write flexures of the arm assemblies to damp arm modes excited whenever the rotary actuated arm comes to a sudden stop. Arm assemblies themselves are being stamped out of damped laminate materials to reduce seek noise. The mounting interface between the spindle motor and the top cover are often interrupted by way of damped metal disk to provide both isolation and damping between components for structure-borne vibration from idle. Despite the obvious challenges in dealing with viscoelastic based treatments in disk drive applications, namely the stringent cleanliness requirements and stability over the life of the product, there has been much success in reducing unwanted drive noise through these types of control methods. As drives are designed to operate at higher and higher RPM's and seek rates, and as track densities continue to increase, noise and vibration issues will continue to be an important design consideration. The challenge for companies like Roush Anatrol will be to provide these solutions to the drive industry at lower costs and ever improving performance. s