Slider Design Optimization for Lube-Surfing Head-Disk Interface Scheme

The stringent magnetic spacing requirement of future high-density magnetic disk drives requires new head disk interface scheme. One possible approach is the lube-surfing scheme-where majority of the slider body is flying while the reader/writer (R/W) element is thermally protruded to contact and penetrate the disk lubricant. This scheme, however, has many challenges to overcome to be feasible. One of these challenges is a slider with improved disk waviness-following capability especially for waviness with wavelength less than half the slider length. This paper explores air bearing design strategies to improve the waviness-following performance of a Femto slider. We propose a ¿W-shaped¿ trailing pad slider and investigated the impact of pad layout, etching depth and trailing pad size to the disk waviness-following performance. We have also incorporated a trenched trailing pad structure to reduce air bearing pressure over the R/W element so as to minimize the loss in air bearing pressure during lube contact and to improve the actuation efficiency.