Design-oriented prediction of operational shock and vibration for hard disk drives

Abstract

The hard disk drives have been increasingly used in consumer electronics and mobile computing, in which they may experience severe shock and vibration. Additionally, there is a fierce competition from the solid state drives. Hence, there is a need for rapid innovation, especially in the ever shorter drives design cycle. This in turn requires faster and accurate simulation method. From HDD vibration isolation studies, it can be observed that to survive a harsh shock and random vibration defined in MIL-STD-810E, the natural frequencies of the external vibration isolation system should be between 10 to 20 Hz. The damping ratio required is relatively high (> 10%). To reduce the peak-to-peak displacement during shock event, combination of soft and stiff isolators can be used.