Effect of environmental conditions on the stiction behavior of laser textured hard disk media

The effect of relative humidity and temperature on the stiction behavior of laser textured and mechanically textured hard disk media is investigated using contact–start–stop testing. The coefficient of stiction for mechanically textured media was found to increase dramatically at high humidity while it remained nearly unchanged for laser textured media. A physical model is used to explain the differences in the stiction behavior between laser textured and mechanically textured media as a function of relative humidity. The model suggests that the differences between laser textured and mechanically textured media are due to the different bearing characteristics of the two types of media. The effect of increasing temperature was found to reduce stiction at high humidity for mechanically textured media. The effect of temperature on stiction appears to be related to changes in lubricant properties with temperature.