Title :
Observations regarding the tribological properties of SiC and AlTiC sliders
Author :
Gatzen, H.H. ; Ma, X. ; Scherge, M. ; Jhon, M.S. ; Bauer, C.L.
Author_Institution :
Inst. for Microtechnol., Hanover Univ., Germany
fDate :
9/1/1996 12:00:00 AM
Abstract :
To accommodate pseudo-contact and contact recording, new slider materials for high-performance heads must be developed. A new candidate for an advanced slider material is SiC. To compare the tribological properties of SiC with Al2O3-TiC (AlTiC), today´s standard thin film head slider/wafer material, heads with SiC dummy sliders have been manufactured and compared to an AlTiC slider. All test heads were subjected to both dynamic friction testing as well as an AFM mapping. Comparing surface topography and nano-friction, the friction for SiC heads was observed to be highly dependent on its surface roughness and may start out even higher than AlTiC. However, the increase in friction over contact time of SiC is much shallower than for AlTiC, therefore the long term friction and wear performance of SiC sliders is superior
Keywords :
alumina; atomic force microscopy; dynamic testing; life testing; magnetic heads; magnetic recording; silicon compounds; sliding friction; spectral analysis; surface topography; titanium compounds; wear testing; AFM mapping; Al2O3-TiC; SiC; accelerated wear test; contact recording; dummy sliders; dynamic friction testing; friction contact time characteristics; friction spectral analysis test; high-performance heads; long term friction performance; nano-friction; pseudo-contact recording; slider materials; surface roughness; surface topography; tribological properties; wear performance; Chemical technology; Crystalline materials; Friction; Magnetic heads; Manufacturing; Materials testing; Rough surfaces; Silicon carbide; Surface roughness; Transistors;
Journal_Title :
Magnetics, IEEE Transactions on
