Patent · US Expired

Binning disk drives during manufacturing by evaluating quality metrics prior to a final quality audit

US7269525B1 · kind B1 · utility

24Cited by
8References
7Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateJun 16, 2004
Grant dateSep 11, 2007
Priority date
Expiry dateDec 30, 2025

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG11B2220/2516
  • WIPO fieldAudio-visual technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A method of binning disk drives by evaluating quality metrics prior to a final quality audit is disclosed. A number of disk drives are assembled, and a plurality of quality metrics are generated for each disk drive representing a plurality of operating characteristics. The quality metrics for each disk drive are evaluated for binning the disk drives into a plurality of lots including a first lot and a second lot. A final quality audit (FQA) is performed by executing a number of write and read operations for a plurality of the disk drives in each lot and classifying each disk drive as passing or failing the FQA. If the number of disk drives that fail the FQA out of the first lot falls below a first threshold, the first lot is classified as acceptable for a first tier customer. If the number of disk drives that fail the FQA out of the second lot falls below a second threshold, the second lot is classified as acceptable for a second tier customer.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.