Compatibility of silicon planar heads with conventional thin film heads in hard disk drives

The behaviour of silicon planar heads in a drive is described. A Conner driver has been chosen to demonstrate the complete compatibility of planar heads with regard to thin-film heads. After a description of the planar silicon head, the authors describe the head and recording performance. Silicon planar heads and conventional thin-film heads are compared in the same recording conditions. Full compatibility has been obtained without changing anything in the drive. Drive performance has been improved using silicon planar heads, probably due to the output without undershoot provided by such heads. A hard disk drive with planar silicon heads has been working perfectly for months with a timing margin of 6 ns compared to 4 ns for thin-film heads