Fly height measurement technology below 10 nm [HDD]

This poster describes recent advances in fly height (FH) measurement technology for rigid disk drives. Such advances have become necessary as fly heights (i.e. the spacing between the head and the disk in a rigid disk drive) drop below 10 nm, giving rise to new measurement challenges, especially in the area of slider calibration. New algorithms have been developed that enable accurate measurements (95% confidence int. /spl sim/1 nm) with low one sigma (/spl sim/0.5 nm) at low fly heights (mean FH /spl sim/9 nm).