Non-homogeneous laminate material for suspension with electrostatic discharge shunting

This invention relates in general to integrated lead suspensions for hard disk drives and in particular to fabricating and applying non-homogenous laminate materials to integrated lead suspensions with ESD shunting. An integrated lead suspension is formed from a laminate of three materials in a variety of configurations having from three to five layers. The materials are stainless steel, polyimide and copper. Each layer is essentially homogeneous, but may be formed with one or more holes or voids prior to the formation of the laminate. The voids allow dielectric material to be removed from the area beneath the conductors to simplify processing and reduce the cost of the suspensions. The voids can also form a window through which conductors can be shorted to other conductive layers to form an electrostatic discharge shunt. Alternatively, the shorting of conductors can be used as a cross-over for various conductors.