Dynamic instability of thermal-flying-height-control sliders at touchdown

• Published in: Microsystem technologies 2012-09, Vol.18 (9-10), p.1319-1322
• Main Authors: Zheng, Jinglin, Bogy, David B.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Electronics and Microelectronics; Engineering; Exact sciences and technology; Fundamental areas of phenomenology (including applications); General equipment and techniques; Instrumentation; Instruments, apparatus, components and techniques common to several branches of physics and astronomy; Mechanical contact (friction...); Mechanical Engineering; Nanotechnology; Physics; Solid mechanics; Structural and continuum mechanics; Technical Paper; Transducers
• ISSN: 0946-7076; 1432-1858
• DOI: 10.1007/s00542-012-1537-6

With the wide application of thermal flying-height control (TFC) technology in the hard disk drive industry, the head-disk clearance can be controlled to as low as ~1 nm. At this ultra-low clearance, the air bearing slider is subject to relatively large interfacial forces, and it experiences more complicated dynamics, compared with the flying case. In this study we conduct a numerical analysis to investigate the dynamics of TFC sliders during touchdown. The general trend of the slider’s motion predicted by the numerical simulation qualitatively agrees with experimental findings. The touchdown process begins with a slight intermittent contact between the slider’s trailing edge and the disk, followed by a partial slider-disk contact at the trailing edge accompanied by a large pitch motion at the 1st air bearing mode; this pitch motion gets suppressed and the slider comes into stable sliding on the disk as the protrusion is further increased.