• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.28 no.8 s.227
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• pp.976-983
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• 2004

In high-density hard disk drives, the slider should be made to fly close to the magnetic recording disk to generate better signal resolution and at an increasingly high velocity to achieve better data rate. The slider disk interaction in CSS (contact-start-stop) mode is an important source of particle generation. Contamination particles in the hard disk drive can cause serious problems including slider crash and thermal asperities. We investigated the number and the sizes of particles generated in the hard disk drive, operating at increasing disk rotational speeds, in the CSS mode. CNC (condensation nucleus counter) and PSS (particle size selector) were used for this investigation. In addition, we examined the particle components by using SEM (scanning electron microscopes), AES (auger electron spectroscopy), and TOF-SIMS (time of flight-secondary ions mass spectrometry). The increasing disk rotational speed directly affected the particle generation by slider disk interaction. The number of particles that were generated increased with the disk rotational speed. The particle generation rate increased rapidly at motor speeds above 8000 rpm. This increase may be due to the increased slider disk interaction. Particle sizes ranged from 14 to 200 nm. The particles generated by slider disk interaction came from the lubricant on the disk, coating layer of the disk, and also slider surface.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.312-320
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• 2001

In magnetic hard disk drives, higher areal recording density requires reduction of head-disk spacing. To overcome the increase of stiction associated with reduction of head-disk spacing, a padder slider, which adds pads to slider's air bearing surface, can be one of the practical solution for sub 20 nm flying height, and even for near contact recording. This study investigated the tribological characteristics of a padder slider. A padder slider took off slowly but showed less friction force than a normal slider. The hot/dry CSS test and drag test indicated that pad wear of a padder slider was negligible. The tribological performance of disk is an important factor to be considered. In particular, less carbon overcoat layer of the disk will result in higher stiction and wear in slider/disk interface. In conclusion, a padder slider shows encouraging tribological performances for practical use in HDD.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.24 no.8
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• pp.1056-1061
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• 2000

Particles existing in a hard disk drive are known as a major source of TA(thermal asperity). Researchers have investigated how particles induce the TA phenomena, but have not verified yet the reason why and how particles are generated in a HDD. The objective of this study is to investigate why and how particles are generated, and in what condition, the largest number of particles is generated. The number of particles generated in a HDD was measured over the landing zone after various rest times of slider and during various motions and positions of slider. It is found that the large number of particles was generated when the HDD was turned on after a long rest time of slider and that a few of particles were continuously generated when the slider flied over the disk surface. It is thought that the number of particles generated in a HDD was related to the rest time of slider because the rest time of slider increased stiction, and that there were intermittent contacts between the slider and the disk surface when the slider flied over the disk surface.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.59-65
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• 2006

In hard disk drives as the head to disk spacing continues to decrease to facilitate recording densities, slider disk interactions have become much more severe due to direct contact of head and disk surfaces in both start/stop and flying cases. The slider disk interaction in CSS (contact-start-stop) mode is an important source of particle generation and tribocharge build-up. The tribocharge build-up in the slider disk interface can cause ESD (electrostatic discharge) damage. In turn, ESD can cause severe melting damage to MR or GMR heads. The spindle speed of typical hard disk drives has increased in recent years from 5400 rpm to 15000 rpm and even higher speeds are anticipated in the near future. And the increasing disk velocity leads to increasing disk acceleration and this might affect the tribocharging phenomena of the slider/disk interface. We investigated the tribocurrent/voltage build-up generated in HDD, operating at increasing disk accelerations. In addition, we examined the effects with relative humidity conditions and rest time. We found that the tribocurrent/voltage was generated during pico-slider/disk interaction and its level was about $3\sim16pA$ and $0.1\sim0.3V$, respectively. Tribocurrent/voltage build-up was reduced with increasing disk acceleration. Higher humidity conditions $(75\sim80%)$ produced lower levels tribovoltage/current. Therefore, a higher tribocharge is expected at a lower disk acceleration and lower relative humidity condition. Rest time affected the charge build-up at the slider-disk interface. The degree of tribocharge build-up increased with increasing rest time.

• Transactions of the Society of Information Storage Systems
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.139-143
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• 2007

In recent years new recording media and materials for head-disk interface (HDI) have been developed in order to increase the recording density of storage devices and decrease the cost of production. It is well known that HDI in hard disk drive (HDD) needs high durability and stability. The tribological characteristic of commercialized HDI systems is an important indicator of the HDD reliability. In this study, experimental investigation on the wear coefficient of commercialized hard disk slider pads was performed. The slider was placed on top of a hard disk and allowed to slide for a set distance. The wear of the pads was measured after the sliding tests. The result showed that the micro-bumps in commercialized HDD have extremely low wear coefficient of $10^{-11}$. The results of this work may be used for further development of the HDI technology for HDD.

• Transactions of the Society of Information Storage Systems
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.81-85
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• 2007

Reliability of a hard disk drive depends on the head disk interface (HDI) characteristics. Particularly, the disk media and the head can be damaged due to contact between the two components during operation. The contact may occur due to particles being introduced into the disk/slider interface or due to direct contact between the slider and the disk. Such contacts may be induced by external vibration or abnormal operation of the HDI. In this work the characteristics of scratches generated on the disk surface were investigated. The scratches were generated by impacting the hard disk. The type of scratches was analyzed with respect to their shape and dimensions.

• KSTLE International Journal
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.52-56
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• 2004

The hard disk drive performance depends strongly on air bearing characterisitcs of the head slider. The objective of the slider design is to provide accurate positioning of the magnetic read/write element at the very small height above the disk. Application of the numerical methods is required due to complexity of the air bearing surface of the slider. The Boundary-Fitted Coordinate System Divergence Formulation method can be used for calculation of pressure distribution in the case of steep film thickness gradients. In the present work, the interpolating functions used in the expression for the Couette flow are modified in order to improve the solution characteristics in the extremely high compressibility number region. The advantages of the modified method are demonstrated on example of the flat skewed slider. Finally, the modi.ed method is applied to analysis of the static characteristics of the femto-slider. The analysis results indicate the effect of the silder's air bearing surface crown on the flying height and the pitching angle in steady state position.

• KSTLE International Journal
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.23-27
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• 2004

The object of the present work is the numerical analysis of the computer hard disk slider. The pressure between slider and disk surfaces is calculated using the Boundary Fitted Coordinate System and Divergence Formulation for the nonlinear Reynolds' equation solution. The optimization scheme is applied to search for the steady state position of the slider. The simplified method is given for the case of the fixed inclined pad. The film thickness ratios and pitching and rolling angles are considered as alternative choice of the slider's coordinates. The behavior of the objective function for the Negative Pressure slider is studied in details. Methods of conjugate directions and feasible directions are applied.

• Transactions of the Society of Information Storage Systems
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.66-72
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• 2007

Surface finishing using magnetorheological (MR) fluid is useful to finish small but not too small workpieces such as those in a few millimeter scale. However, due to the high surface hardness, this finishing process does not seem to be suit for applying to a hard disk slider. In this work, a preliminary study is performed on the finishing of the hard disk slider surface with a mixture of an MR fluid and diamond powder. During a wheel type MR finishing process, centrifugal force is found to be a major factor to cause a reduction in material remove rate (MRR), which is supported by a theoretical model. To facilitate this founding, the rotational speed of tool is confined to 500rpm while a rectilinear alternating motion with the mean speed, which is equivalent to the rotational speed, is additionally applied to the workpieces. As a consequence, MRR of about 2 times of the sole rotational case is obtained. This paper shows that MR finishing process can be used to polish a hard material in millimeter scale efficiently by controlling the speeds of the tool and the workpiece.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.477-484
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• 2000

Microcontamination caused by particle deposition on the head disk interface threatens the reliability of hard disk drive. Design of slider rail to control contamination becomes an important issue in magnetic recording. In this paper, how particles adhere to the slider and the disk is examined. To investigate accumulation mechanism of the particles, trajectory of the particles in a slider/disk interface is simulated with considering various forces including drag force, gravitational force, Saffman lift force, and electrostatic force. It is found that the charged particles can easily adhere to the slider or disk surface, if an electric field exists between the slider and the disk. It is supposed that the vertical motion of the particles should be related with not only Saffman force but also electrostatic force.