Development of Active Head Slider for Flying Height Control

Abstract

This paper describes a design of an active head slider using a piezoelectric unimorph cantilever for flying height control. Air bearing surface (ABS) that produces low or negative pressure under the head was designed to reduce the aerodynamic reaction force during the head actuation. The voltage required to lower the head considering the aerodynamic lift force was calculated by the coupling method for fluid-structure interaction. This method enables us to predict the performance of the active head slider in the design process.