Hitachi GST Assigned Patent

Hitachi Global Storage Technologies, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, has been assigned a patent (8,144,431) developed by four co-inventors for a "flex cable assembly for vibration reduction in HDD applications."

They are Jen-Yuan Chang, San Jose, CA, Robert C. Reinhart, San Jose, CA, Edgar D. Rothenberg, San Jose, CA, and See C. Young, San Jose, CA.

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "A hard disk drive flex cable assembly conveys data between a connector to a host system and a head stack assembly. It comprises a flex cable which in part has a first end for coupling to the connector, and a second end for coupling to the head stack assembly; and a stiffener coupled to the second end. The stiffener comprises an end formed to approximate a J-shape. A filling material is applied to the concave surface of the J-shape, whereby a dynamic response frequency of the flex cable assembly is moved away from a dynamic response frequency of the head stack assembly upon which the flex cable assembly is coupled."

The patent application was filed on April 4, 2007 (11/784,134).