Voltage pulsing for localized clearance measurement

Mechanical clearance is a critical parameter of the head/disk interface (HDI) for sliders flying in close proximity in hard disk drives. It depends on a variety of HDI parameters, such as the air-bearing design, disk roughness, and the disk lubricant. An experimental setup was developed to determine the mechanical clearance locally at any location on the disk. Voltage pulsing is used to add an additional force component to the complex HDI equilibrium. The applied force is attractive in character and therefore reduces the mechanical spacing between the slider and the disk. If the magnitude of the applied voltage is changed, a slight contact between the slider and the disk can be realized. Simultaneous measurement of the induced slider displacement using a laser vibrometer allows the quantification of the mechanical clearance. The effect of disk roughness and microwaviness on the mechanical clearance is investigated.