Advanced Head–Disk Interface System Assisted by Gas PFPE Lubrication

Advanced head-disk interface (HDI) system assisted by gas perfluoropolyether (PFPE) lubrication is discussed in this paper. It is known that the lubricant spins off under the high rotation speed and high temperature. The lubricant redistribution after long-term head seeking with near-contact flying was studied. The spinoff and the redistribution of lubricant will be serious issues for the reliability of the hard disk drives. Our proposed HDI system shows high performance without the lubricant spinoff and redistribution. This is achieved by dripping only a small amount of lubricant on the suspension. This lubricant evaporates under high temperature and is adsorbed on to the disk surface. As a result, the spinoff, the redistribution, and the head contamination were significantly reduced. The lubricant on a magnetic disk could be maintained for a long time. The amount of this lubricant was optimized to maintain the constant thickness thorough the balance of the supplying and the decreasing. It was confirmed that the lubricant on the disks in this new HDI system maintained for about 10 000 hours at 70degC.