Dynamics of transient events at the head/disk interface

Slider/disk contacts of nano and pico sliders are investigated using an acoustic emission sensor and a high bandwidth laser Doppler vibrometer (LDV). The following cases are studied: (a) influence of scratch impact on the airbearing stiffness; (b) influence of lubricant thickness on slider dynamics for single bump impacts; (c) influence of lubricant thickness on slider vertical stick–slip vibrations; (d) dynamics of take-off and landing. Linear time frequency analysis is applied to study simultaneously the impact response of the airbearing and the slider torsional and bending modes. The contact dynamics of single bump impacts is examined as a function of disk velocity and lubricant thickness. Increased slider vibrations are found for thick lubricant films both for sliding contacts as well as for single bump impacts. During the transition from sliding to flying a change of the bending mode frequency is observed.     

Microwear mechanism of head carbon film during head disk interface sliding contact

Thermomechanical sliding contact of head disk interface (HDI) causes critical wear on the carbon film of a head slider. An improved contact model accounting for both asperity and substrate deformation is applied to analyze the HDI contact behavior, while theories of frictional heat generation and heat transfer are used to investigate the change in HDI temperature. Based on actual HDI design and operation parameters, parametric study of thermomechanical HDI contact has been performed. It was found that severe wear of head carbon film would be significantly attributed to thermal degradation of carbon material during its sliding contact.     

Experimental investigation of AE and friction signals related to the durability of head/disk interface

The durability of a hard disk drive is one of the most critical issues that must be optimized for best performance. Especially as the flying height of the head slider of a hard disk drive decreases over the years, the concern for surface damage and head contamination continues to grow. In this paper the characteristics of AE and friction signals for various operating conditions using CSS and drag tests were investigated from the durability point of view. Also, the wear characteristics of the laser bumps on a magnetic disk were compared between the CSS and drag tests. The general shapes of the AE and friction signals during a single CSS test were quite similar even under less than ideal operating conditions. However, it was found that the AE signal was more sensitive than the friction signal in assessing the damage of the slider/disk interface. Finally, a correlation was established between the CSS and drag testing methods with respect to the laser bump wear. This outcome suggests that the drag test may be used to accelerate the surface damage effect of head/disk system.     

Study on the cyclotriphosphazene film on magnetic head surface

Stable lubrication is very important to the slider/disk interface with the increasing demand on the life of computer hard disk drive (HDD). The inert lubricant perfluoropolyether (PFPE) on the surface of magnetic hard disk is still prone to be catalyzed to decomposition by the slider material Al₂O₃. The properties of a partial fluorinated hexaphenoxy cyclotriphosphazene, X-1P, are investigated and its function to reduce the catalytic decomposition of PFPE is discussed. The results of contact start–stop (CSS) tester indicate that the thermal stability of the lubricant was greatly improved in the presence of X-1P, and its film thickness has a great influence on the lubrication properties of the HDD.     

弯曲振动圆盘振动特性试验研究

对超声振动系统中弯曲振动圆盘的振动特性进行了试验研究,结果表明,减小圆盘厚度,谐振频率减小;减小圆盘直径,谐振频率增大。在振动系统设计中,将变幅杆与弯曲振动圆盘设计成一体,克服了原来由于螺纹连接所造成的缺陷。通过试验得知,弯曲振动圆盘是以弯曲振动为主,存在一定反射波的干扰,并且圆盘具有增幅特性,圆盘的最大振幅约为18μm。所获得的结论对振动系统结构设计以及在超声深孔珩磨中的应用有一定的参考价值。     

Development of flying type head/slider for optical recording technology

Flying-type sliders with the integration of optical components were developed for Near-Field Recording (NFR) and Far-Field Recording (FFR) technologies. The key design issue was the integration of the optical components with the slider. Due to the size of the lenses mounted on it, the slider had to be relatively large, corresponding to the size of a micro-slider. Also, the non-uniform distribution of the slider body density was incorporated in the design. As for the optical disk substrate, a plastic material such as polycarbonate was investigated because of its manufacturing convenience and cost effectiveness. The flying and tribological performance of the prototype optical sliders on various media were assessed. The results showed that the tribological characteristics of the slider/disk interface were sensitive to several factors including the properties of the disk. Adequate flying characteristics of the optical sliders on glass (NFR) and plastic (FFR) disks could be attained by optimizing these parameters.     

An analytical study on the effect of rigid body translational degree of freedom on the vibration characteristics of elastically constrained rotating disks

This study concerns the linear vibration behavior of annular spinning disk whose inner boundary is free to move in the axial direction while the body of the disk is constrained by a space fixed linear spring. It is shown, using analytical techniques based upon a three mode approximation, that constraining a spinning disk, free to have rigid body translation, with one space fixed spring does not change the critical speeds. Using an analysis, based on a two-mode approximation, the stability characteristics of a guided spinning disk due to the interaction between a rigid body translational mode and a forward or backward or reflected traveling wave are studied. It is shown that the interaction between the rigid body translational mode and a forward or backward traveling wave does not induce instability. In contrast to this situation it is shown that when the rigid body translational degree of freedom interacts with a reflected wave, depending on the speed and the stiffness of the spring, it may induce instability.     

Probability Model for the intermolecular force with surface roughness considered

This paper studies the intermolecular force considering both the roughness of the air-bearing surface and the disk surface by simulation. A model is developed to deal with the intermolecular force, the contact force and the air-bearing force based on the probability distributions of the roughness of the surfaces. The intermolecular force is linked with the contact force when its repulsive term is stronger than its attractive term. In such a case, all the intermolecular force, the contact force and the air-bearing force can be extended to the various flying height regions. Some interesting results are observed and discussed. It is found that both the Hamaker constant and the surface roughness have significant influences on the intermolecular pressure. Compared with the intermolecular pressure with smooth surfaces, that with the surface roughness considered shows greater attractive pressure at the flying height higher than 0.7 nm approximately, but much smaller values between 0.26 and 0.7 nm approximately. A negative stiffness region exists when the minimum flying height is between −0.2 and 1.2 nm for the case studied in this paper. It shows that the Probability Model is suitable for the intermolecular force calculation with the surface roughness considered.     

Study of a Spherical-Pad Head Slider for Stable Low-Clearance Recording in Near-Contact Regime

A slider with an air-bearing surface that has a small spherical pad around the read/write elements on the trailing center pad was developed to reduce the meniscus and friction forces and slider clearance loss. While the slider which has a spherical pad of a radius less than 10 mm, the meniscus force is reduced to less than 10% of the air-bearing lift force, thus, flying height modulation is decreased and instability are suppressed. Evaluation using an air-bearing surface model with a spherical pad showed that slider clearance was increased by 1 nm at a 5-nm nominal flying height. Evaluation using touchdown-takeoff testing of a spherical pad slider fabricated by depositing carbon on the center pad air-bearing surface by means of the lift-off resist technique showed that the spherical pad slider had a very small friction force and acoustic emission output up to a 5-nm interference height. It thus provides instability-free sliding in the near-contact regime.     

新型弹性耦合激励振动筛参数的优化设计

针对现有振动筛普遍存在的噪声高和基础振动大的缺陷,提出逆式动力吸振原理,突破振动筛传统的设计模式,在结构上采用激励与工作振体分离通过弹性耦合传递激励,并对样机模型进行了试验研究,为振动筛的研制开辟了一条新途径。     

Drive level measurement of flying height modulation and control of slider disk contact

A drive level measurement of flying height modulation and a demonstration of slider-disk contact control was conducted. The results of the flying height modulation strongly agree with those obtained from a Laser Doppler Vibrometer (LDV) measurement. The modulation was mainly caused by curvature caused by disk clamping. Furthermore, feedback control of a slider-disk contact was successfully demonstrated. Friction force was controlled at a small value to maintain the slider so that it flew over the disk in the light contact regime.     

Experimental and analytical studies of dynamic friction at the head/disk interface

Friction is an important parameter that critically impacts the tribological performance of a head/disk interface. The head/disk interface with laser zone texture affords a model system for the study of dynamic friction by virtue of its precisely-controlled contact geometry. By using two types of head sliders, i.e. the conventional slider and the padded slider, and a matrix of hard disks with a wide range of laser zone texture parameters, head/disk contacts involving a small number as well as a large number of bumps are realized. A rich variety of dynamic friction behaviors are observed with respect to bump height and bump density variations. To shed new light on the nature of HDI dynamic friction, an analytical model that treats both the deformational and the adhesive friction components on equal footings is formulated. It is shown that, based on the model analysis, the friction is deformation-dominated for HDIs involving a small number of contacting bumps and adhesion-dominated for HDIs involving a large number of contacting bumps. In the former case the friction decreases with bump density, whereas in the latter the friction increases with bump density.     

Air Bearing Simulation for Bit Patterned Media

Patterned media are being considered as a promising approach for achieving storage densities beyond 1 Tb/in² on hard disks. Patterned media reduce cross talk of adjacent bits and improve thermal stability of the media. In this investigation, the flying characteristics of femto-type sliders over bit patterned media (BPM) are investigated. The discrete bits of the disk are modeled as isolated conical protrusions on the disk surface.     

Measurement of wear of carbon coated sliders using atomic force microscopy and Raman spectroscopy

Wear of carbon coated sub-ambient pressure “pico” sliders is investigated during sweep testing as a function of interference height, slider design and sliding distance using atomic force microscopy. The wear results from atomic force microscopy measurements are compared with wear measurements of the carbon overcoat using Raman spectroscopy. The effect of interference on wear and disk burnishing is studied using acoustic emission measurements and atomic force microscopy. The results show that wear of a slider is higher for larger interference height and higher stiffness of the air-bearing.     

Effect of relative humidity and disk acceleration on tribocharge build-up at a slider–disk interface

High performance disk drives require high spindle speed. The spindle speed of typical hard disk drives has increased in recent years from 5400 to 15000 rpm and even higher speeds are anticipated in the near future. The increasing disk velocity leads to increasing disk acceleration and slider–disk interaction. As the head-to-disk spacing continues to decrease to facilitate increasing recording densities in disk drives, the slider–disk interaction has become much more severe due to the direct contact of head and disk surfaces in both start/stop and flying cases. The slider–disk interaction in contact-start-stop (CSS) mode is an important source of particle generation and tribocharge. Charge build-up in the slider–disk interface can cause electrostatic discharge (ESD) damage and lubricant decomposition. In turn, ESD can cause severe melting damage to MR or GMR heads. We measured the tribocurrent/voltage build-up generated at increasing disk acceleration. In addition, we examined the effects of relative humidity on the tribocharge build-up. We found that the tribocurrent/voltage was generated during pico-slider/disk interaction and that its level was below 250 pA and 0.5 V, respectively. Tribocurrent/voltage build-up was reduced with increasing disk acceleration. Higher humidity conditions (75–80%) yielded lower levels of tribovoltage/current. Therefore, a higher tribocharge is expected at a lower disk acceleration and lower relative humidity condition.     

Load/unload measurements using laser doppler vibrometry and acoustic emission

The dynamics of the load/unload process are studied using a so-called ‘periscope approach’ which allows us to follow the slider motion during load/unload (L/UL) with the beam of a Laser Doppler Vibrometer (LDV). LDV signals and acoustic emission signals are obtained for three different slider airbearing designs and for load/unload conditions with different vertical velocities and spindle speeds. The load process is investigated statistically using the acoustic emission signal in order to determine the effect of vertical load speed and spindle speed on the probability of contacts between slider and disk.The results indicate that small vertical load speeds decrease the number of head/disk contacts, and that slider designs with a cavity centered close to the trailing edge enable a smooth unloading process.     

Integrated optimal design of flexible mechanism and vibration control

A method of simultaneous optimal design of flexible mechanisms and control with multiple frequency constraints based on the independent modal space control theory is proposed. Firstly, the performance index for simultaneous mechanism and control design is discussed. Secondly, an integrated optimal design algorithm is developed on the basis of Kuhn–Tucker optimality criteria, in which three damping factors are introduced to guarantee the algorithm that possesses good stability and convergence. Finally, numerical simulations are carried out on a path generating mechanism. Simulation results show that the performance of the control input is improved significantly after integrated optimization.     

Possibility of surface force effect in slider air bearings of 100 Gbit/in hard disks

The recording density has been increasing in a high rate of 60% per year in the last 10 years. In the next several years it is expected that the recording density will be 100 Gbit/in² and then 1000 Gbit/in². It is said that a spacing of about 5 nm will be necessary for 100 Gbit/in². For two solid surfaces with such a small spacing, it is expected reasonably that the surface force will come into action. In this paper, numerical analysis was conducted to explore the possibility of the surface force for the slider air bearing working with respect to the glide avalanche. The numerical results show that surface force reduces the stiffness of the slider air bearing and the load carrying capacity as well. It is worth noting that, although the decrease in the load carrying capacity may not be significant, the reduction in the stiffness may be critical for many cases. The reduction in the stiffness of slider air bearings due to the surface force may be one of the most important mechanisms of the glide avalanche. The predicted take-off height to overcome the surface force is about several nano-meters. Increasing the pitch angle tends to decreases the take-off height. A lubricant film of about 1 nm will reduce the risk of the glide avalanche in some extent, but increasing the film thickness has little effect.     

Analysis and optimization of dynamic response of air bearing sliders to disk waviness

Flying stability has been becoming more critical for air bearing sliders with extremely low flying height (FH). Therefore, the effects of disk waviness on flying height modulation (FHM) cannot be neglected. This paper presents an analytical study on the mechanism of FHM of air bearing sliders due to disk waviness, and a design optimization for increasing waviness following ability of sliders. An analytical three-degree-of-freedom (3-DOF) model is developed, where the air bearings are modeled as six lumped linear springs and dampers. The purpose of this model is to develop a quantitative understanding of how air bearing sliders respond to disk waviness. The dynamic characteristics of the slider-air bearing system are then analyzed, and the closed-form frequency resonance function (FRF) of FHM to disk waviness is derived. The impact of disk surface features and the positions of the trailing pad, the side pads, the leading pads and the negative pressure center on FHM are also investigated using parametric analysis. The analysis results show that the improvement of the roll-off characteristics of the disk surface waviness can also decrease the FHM. In addition, shortening the distance between the trailing pad pressure center and the head position, moving backward the side pads and leading pads and forward the negative pressure center can increase waviness following ability of the slider. Finally, an air bearing slider is designed according to the proposed design strategies for reducing the FHM due to disk waviness.     

Sliding-pin shapes and lubricant thickness change on a thin-film magnetic disk

In developing hard disk drives, it is necessary to keep lubricant as thick as possible during operations. For this purpose, we studied lubricant loss under different-shape contact-sliders on thin-film magnetic disks by using transparent-pin sliding tests with a built-in ellipsometer. We compared sliding pins with spherical, flat circle, flat square, and double-flat-rail surfaces.We found that lubricant loss was smaller under flat pins than under the spherical pin, and the smallest under the double-flat-rail pin among flat sliders. The results show that the horizontal and vertical shapes of sliders must carefully be selected for contact recording systems.