Fly Height Measurement Based on Phase Comparison Michelson Interferometry Using Low-Coherence Light Source

We present a method for measuring head fly height in hard disk drives using phase comparison Michelson interferometry (PCMI), which compares the phases of two interference fringe patterns formed respectively on the inner surface of a glass disk and the air-bearing surface of a fly head slider through the glass disk. To suppress interference noise and further enhance measurement accuracy, we adopted a low-coherence light source as an illumination source to replace a high-coherence laser. The captured fringe images enabled us to extract ridge lines much more accurately than with a laser. We compared our measurements in the sub-10 nm spacing range with calculations and found excellent agreement.