Flying-height adjustment technologies of magnetic head sliders

Two of many parameters that need to be controlled in designing magnetic recording sliders with the desired flying height are manufacturing tolerances and environmental variations. To reduce the effect of these two parameters, we have developed an adjustable flying-height slider. This slider carries a piezoelectric microactuator to control the flying height. After simulating the piezoelectric deflection and its effect on the flying characteristics, we designed an air-bearing and fabricated a slider using silicon micro-electromechanical systems processing. Optical measurements showed that the flying height of the slider changed as electric voltage was applied to the microactuator. The observed stroke of 6 nm/15 V is less than the simulated stroke because of contact between the slider and the disk, but it is still large enough to reduce the effect of the two mentioned parameters.