Submicron Spacing of a Self-Loading Flying Head Slider Mechanism : 2nd Report, Experimental Research

Abstract

This paper proposes a self-loading flying head slider mechanism to be used for information storage on magnetic disk media under non-contact start/stop mode conditions. The mechanism consists of a zero-load negative pressure air bearing slider, a slider suspension mechanism and a twin-structure piezoelectric actuator as the head loading mechanism. Experimental research on fundamental flying characteristics of the slider was carried out. The dynamics of a self-load/unload negative pressure air bearing were successfully studied in detail with a laser Doppler vibrometer, and no intermittent contact between head and disk was observed in either the self-load or unload case. A theoretical study of the self-loading phenomenon was performed, and its conclusions were in good agreement with the experimental results. This suggests the feasibility of achieving a high head/disk interface reliability and, in particular, of overcoming problems of stiction and tribology between head and disk.