Designing, Modeling, and Testing Particle Robust Air Bearings for Perpendicular Recording Media

Particle-induced damage on perpendicular recording media can be categorized as physical damage to the media and magnetic erasures with limited physical damage. Component-level tests were developed in order to measure particle robustness of air bearing designs for these two failure modes. A published model for air bearing interactions with a particle was extended to include the full slider surface and allow particles to slide along the slider air bearing features. The model and test results correlate for hard particle scratching. Specific air bearing features and properties can be modified in order to improve dramatically the air bearing particle robustness for hard particle scratches and particle-induced magnetic erasures.