Design and operating conditions for reliable load/unload systems

Dynamic load/unload (L/UL) has been widely used in portable and removable drives, and the disk drive industry has recently begun to apply it in desktop and server drives to eliminate stiction and wear associated with contact start–stop (CSS). There are many design parameters in L/UL systems that affect reliability, such as the slider air bearing, suspension, ramp and operating parameters. In this paper, we summarize our recent work on L/UL. We discuss the effects of the air bearing design, the suspension and its limiters, L/UL speed, disk rmp, ramp profile, and dimple pre-load. The results are expected to aid in the design of reliable L/UL systems.