Dynamics of contacting head-disk interfaces

We have successfully designed, fabricated, and tested contact recording sliders where most of the suspension load is supported by an air-bearing surface with only a small contact force (<5 mN) acting on the rear contact pad. To understand the contact dynamics, we have developed an integrated approach where experimental results from friction and laser doppler vibrometry are modeled using an air-bearing code modified to include contact forces. A low bounce (<1 nm mean-to-peak) is achieved in our designs by reducing the real area of contact to minimize friction, by increasing disk roughness, and/or by reducing the width of the slider contact pad. Due to the reduced magnetic spacing, these contact recording heads have bit-error rates several orders lower than conventional flying heads.