A hydrodynamic bearing device is provided for use with a spindle motor.
The hydrodynamic bearing device has a sleeve made of a sintered metal
that is obtained by sintering a sintering material that is iron, an iron
alloy, copper, a copper alloy or a mixture thereof. This sintered metal
has independent pores, which do not communicate with each other, by
selecting conditions for forming a desired sintered body within a
predetermined range. The conditions includes a grain size of powdered
metal of a material for the sintered metal, a molding pressure when the
molded body is formed, sintering temperature and sintering period in the
sintering step.