Numerical Simulation of a Thermal Flying Height Control Slider With Dual Heater and Insulator Elements

Thermal flying height control (TFC) has recently been implemented in magnetic recording disk drives to reduce the flying height at the read/write element of magnetic recording sliders. This paper investigates the flying characteristics of a new TFC slider design with two heater and insulator elements. The flying height reduction of the slider is determined as a function of the placement and thermal characteristics of the heater and insulator elements. Simulation results show that for a constant heater power, the dual TFC heater with thermal insulators achieves a larger flying height reduction at the read/write element than the single TFC heater design.