Particle monitoring method using acoustic emission signal for analysis of slider/disk/particle interaction

One of the most important reliability issues in an information storage device is the contamination problem. The slider and disk can be damaged by the particles intruded into the slider/disk interface (SDI). In this work, in order to monitor the slider/disk interaction due to particle injection the acoustic emission (AE) method, which is typically utilized for the detection of slider contact, was used. The raw as well as frequency spectrum of the AE signal were obtained during the particle injection test. The particles were artificially injected inside the test apparatus to simulate the effect of contamination on the slider/disk interaction. SiC and polystyrene particles were used for the tests. As a result, the 1st torsional and bending mode frequencies of the nano-slider were observed when 1 μm SiC particles and 60 nm polystyrene particles were injected into the SDI. Also, it was shown that the particle behavior at the SDI can be predicted from the characteristics of the AE raw signal.