DESIGN, FABRICATION, AND TESTING OF SILICON MICROGIMBALS FOR SUPER-COMPACT RIGID DISK DRIVES

This paper documents results related to design optimization, fabricati on process refinement, and micron-level static/dynamic testing of sili con micromachined microgimbals that have applications in super-compact computer disk drives as well as many other engineering applications o f microstructures and microactuators requiring significant out-of-plan e motions, The objective of the optimization effort is to increase the in-plane to out-of-plane stiffness ratio in order to maximize complia nce and servo bandwidth and to increase the displacement to strain rat io to maximize the shock resistance of the microgimbals, ,while that o f the process modification effort is to simplify in order to reduce ma nufacturing cost, The testing effort is to characterize both the stati c and dynamic performance using precision instrumentation in order to compare various prototype designs.