ABS Design for a Three-Pad Step-Slider

Abstract

We studied a magnetic recording head of a three-pad step-slider with a stepped air bearing surface (ABS). The contact force of the three-pad step-slider of positive pressure is smaller than that of conventinal negative pressure sliders when it contacts the disk surface. The smaller contact force is because of the smaller stiffness of air film of positive pressure sliders. We found that velocity of the slider slightly depends on the flying height. We optimized the design of the ABS and showed that the uniform flying height profile at the trailing edge was achieved quite well within two nanometers. We produced many three-pad step-sliders by micromaching silicon, re-calculated and measured the flying height as a function of velocity and found that the difference between the calculations and the measurements was within three nanometers. These results confirm the effectiveness of the three-pad step-slider.