Observations regarding the tribological properties of SiC and AlTiC sliders

Author

Gatzen, H.H. ; Ma, X. ; Scherge, M. ; Jhon, M.S. ; Bauer, C.L.

Author_Institution

Inst. for Microtechnol., Hanover Univ., Germany

Volume

32

Issue

5

fYear

1996

fDate

9/1/1996 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

3783

Lastpage

3785

Abstract

To accommodate pseudo-contact and contact recording, new slider materials for high-performance heads must be developed. A new candidate for an advanced slider material is SiC. To compare the tribological properties of SiC with Al₂O₃-TiC (AlTiC), today´s standard thin film head slider/wafer material, heads with SiC dummy sliders have been manufactured and compared to an AlTiC slider. All test heads were subjected to both dynamic friction testing as well as an AFM mapping. Comparing surface topography and nano-friction, the friction for SiC heads was observed to be highly dependent on its surface roughness and may start out even higher than AlTiC. However, the increase in friction over contact time of SiC is much shallower than for AlTiC, therefore the long term friction and wear performance of SiC sliders is superior

Keywords

alumina; atomic force microscopy; dynamic testing; life testing; magnetic heads; magnetic recording; silicon compounds; sliding friction; spectral analysis; surface topography; titanium compounds; wear testing; AFM mapping; Al₂O₃-TiC; SiC; accelerated wear test; contact recording; dummy sliders; dynamic friction testing; friction contact time characteristics; friction spectral analysis test; high-performance heads; long term friction performance; nano-friction; pseudo-contact recording; slider materials; surface roughness; surface topography; tribological properties; wear performance; Chemical technology; Crystalline materials; Friction; Magnetic heads; Manufacturing; Materials testing; Rough surfaces; Silicon carbide; Surface roughness; Transistors;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Magnetics, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9464

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/20.538835

Filename

538835