Abstract
The rapid increase in the recording density of magnetic disk drives has required decreasing the flying height of magnetic head sliders to approximately 10nm. Under such low flying height conditions, however, the heat generated by the high-frequency current in the writer coils and the rise in the ambient temperature both cause local protrusion of head elements. Such protrusion reduces the flying height below the design value, thus reducing the safety margin for head/disk interference. To analyze this problem, the heat transfer in the head slider, the thermal deformation of the head, and the flying height changes of the slider due to the deformation were numerically simulated. The parameter study showed that short pole and shields cause a smaller ambient-temperature-induced protrusion but a larger write-current-induced protrusion, i.e., a trade-off relationship exists.
