Advanced Head Disk Interface System Assisted by Gas PFPE Lubrication

Abstract

An advanced head disk interface (HDI) system assisted by gas perfluoropolyether (PFPE) lubrication is discussed in this paper. It is known that lubricant spins off at a high rotation speed and high temperature. Lubricant redistribution after long-term seeking operation with near-contact flying has been studied. The spin-off and redistribution of lubricant are serious problems for the reliability of hard disk drives (HDDs). An HDI system is proposed that exhibits high performance without lubricant spin-off and redistribution; that is, it allows only a small amount of lubricant to drip on the recirculation filter in the head disk assembly (HDA). This lubricant evaporates in the HDI at a high temperature, and the lubricant gas is adsorbed on the disk surface. Consequently, the thickness of the lubricant layer decreases because of spin-off or degradation. As a result, the spin-off, redistribution, and head contamination are significantly reduced. The lubricant can be maintained for a long time on the magnetic disk. In this study, we focused on the reduction of head contamination by gas lubrication. We confirmed that gas lubrication reduced head contamination caused by long-term HDD operation.