Thin film thermocouple sensors for measurement of contact temperatures during slider asperity interaction on magnetic recording disks

Thin-film thermocouple sensors have been fabricated on a magnetic recording slider. Both the sensors and the reference junctions are located on the air bearing surface of the slider. The effective size of the junctions is 4 μm, and response time is faster than 0.5 μs. The sensitivity of these thermocouples is measured to be 7 μV/°C. The thermocouple signals obtained at the slider asperity contacts show a temperature rise of 1-5°C. Incorporating the sensor dimensions and assuming asperities of 0.5 μm width, the actual temperatures are estimated to be in the range of 90-450°C