Thermal and heat-flow aspects of actuators for hard disk drives

Thermal, heat-flow, and airflow characteristics of actuators for hard disk drives (HDDs) were investigated. The major mode of actuator cooling comes from conductive heat transfer, which is caused by the close proximity of components in the actuator. The temperature data was used to deduce the thermal distortion in the actuator. Tracking errors predicted by the actuator model agreed reasonably well with those measured in a test HDD operated at a similar thermal condition. Because of the complicated construction and structure of the hard disk drive´s actuator, it can interact with the thermal field causing distortions