Western Digital (fremont), Inc.

Read Rite Corporation

Eric Thomas Sladek

Biao Sun

Yong Hu

Ji-Feng Ying

Forhad Hossain

Mark D Moravec

Hariharakeshava S Hegde

Ittipon Cheowanish

Pablo G Levi

Francis W Ryan

Michael Sullivan

Michael A Stacy

Vijay Prabhakaran

Ashok Venkatesh Kulkarni

Niranjan Gopinathan

James A Tiernan

Dulyarat Mokararat

A slider for a hard disk includes a leading structure having a first air bearing surface portion, a trailing structure having a second air bearing surface portion, and a cavity between the leading structure and the trailing structure. The leading structure has one or more interior walls defining a pit therein. A hard disk drive includes a rotatable magnetic recording disk and the slider.

Slider having shock and particle resistance

A slider having an air bearing surface and a leading face is described. The slider comprises a leading edge blend comprising a first curved surface formed at an intersection of the air bearing surface and the leading face. The slider further comprises at least one step feature having a second surface with a first portion recessed from the air bearing surface and a second portion recessed from and conformal to the first curved surface of the leading edge blend.

Slider with leading edge blend and conformal step features

A novel head includes an air bearing surface having a trailing pad adjacent the read transducer and lying in a primary plane. The air bearing surface includes a sub-ambient pressure cavity recessed from the primary plane by at least 500 nm. At least one leading pad is disposed upstream of the sub-ambient pressure cavity and has a leading pad surface in the primary plane. A moat is disposed upstream of the leading pad and is recessed from the primary plane by at least 500 nm. The moat continuously spans the entire width of the slider. A particle fence in the primary plane is disposed immediately upstream of the moat and adjacent the leading face. The particle fence continuously laterally spans at least 70% of the width of the slider.

Head with an air bearing surface having a particle fence separated from a leading pad by a continuous moat

A method of forming a slider includes forming a leading edge blend on a leading edge of the slider. After the leading edge blend is formed, the method further includes forming at least one step feature conformal to the leading edge blend. A slider having an air bearing surface includes a leading edge blend and at least one step feature conformal to the leading edge blend.

A head has an air bearing surface with left and right leading pressurizing steps. The left and right leading pressurizing steps are each partially surrounded by left and right leading pads, respectively. The left leading pressurizing step includes a left short region that extends for a first distance (measured parallel to the slider longitudinal axis) from the leading face of the slider to the left leading pad. The left leading pressurizing step also includes a left long region that extends for a second distance (measured parallel to the longitudinal axis) from the leading face to the left leading pad. The second distance is at least 25% greater than the first distance. The left short region is disposed closer to the left lateral face than is the left long region. The left long region is disposed closer to the longitudinal axis than is the left short region.

Head with an air bearing surface having left and right leading pressurizing steps, each with short and long regions

A head includes a transducer and a slider having an air bearing surface (ABS) and a trailing face. The slider has an overcoat layer that includes the trailing face and that overcoats the transducer. The ABS includes a trailing pad having a major surface adjacent the transducer, with the major surface lying in a primary plane. The ABS also includes a sub-ambient pressure cavity disposed upstream of the overcoat layer and being recessed from the primary plane by a cavity depth in the range 0.8 to 2 microns. The overcoat layer includes a trailing air flow dam being recessed from the primary plane by a step depth in the range 0.05 to 0.5 microns. The overcoat layer also includes a corner region recessed from the primary plane by at least the cavity depth.

Head with a transducer overcoat having a trailing air flow dam that is shallowly recessed from an air bearing surface

A head for use in an information storage device includes a novel ABS, and a transducer with a heating element. The ABS includes a transducer pad that includes a surface in a first plane. The ABS also includes a pressure-relief trough that is recessed from the first plane by at least 0.1 microns and has an upstream breadth of no more than one fourth of the total length of the slider. The pressure-relief trough is disposed immediately upstream of the transducer pad and continuously spans the total width of the transducer pad. The ABS also includes a flow-diversion dam that has a dam surface that lies in the first plane. The dam surface continuously spans the total width of the transducer pad. The dam surface is disposed immediately upstream of the pressure-relief trough and generally downstream of a sub-ambient pressure cavity.

Head having a transducer heater and an air bearing surface with a flow-diversion dam and pressure-relief trough disposed upstream of the transducer

A head for use in a magnetic hard disk drive or other information storage device includes a novel ABS. The novel ABS includes an inter-cavity dam that is disposed between at least a portion of a cavity and a trailing pad. The inter-cavity dam is spaced longitudinally from the trailing pad by at least one thirtieth of the slider length. The inter-cavity dam includes an OD dam surface and an ID dam surface, with a slider-bisecting longitudinal plane passing between a majority of the OD dam surface and a majority of the ID dam surface. The OD dam surface is recessed from the first plane by an OD dam recession, and the ID dam surface is recessed from the first plane by an ID dam recession that is not equal to the OD dam recession.

Slider with an air bearing surface having a inter-cavity dam with OD and ID dam surfaces of different heights

A novel air bearing can be used in a magnetic hard disk drive or other information storage device. The novel air bearing includes a central cavity having a bottom surface, a leading pad adjacent to the central cavity, a trailing center pad having a top surface, and two inter-projection step regions. The trailing center pad has an aft region adjacent to the transducer and three projections extending from the aft region towards the central cavity. The central cavity separates the three projections from the leading pad. Each of the two inter-projection step regions lies at least partially between the projections, and each includes a surface at an intermediate level between a level of the top surface and the level of the bottom surface. The novel air bearing may be adequately insensitive to one or more factors affecting flying height variation in a micro-drive utilizing ramp load/unload of the slider.

Air bearing slider with three-projection trailing center pad

A slider is formed of an air bearing surface coated with a wear limiting coating that substantially limits surface wear of the air bearing surface encountered in proximity recording. The wear limiting coating is comprised of a wear inhibiting layer formed on the air bearing surface and a sacrificial layer formed on the wear inhibiting layer. The two coatings of the wear limiting coating have different mechanical properties so that the sacrificial layer is burnished, exposing the wear inhibiting layer. This design substantially limits the surface wear of the air bearing surface typically encountered in proximity recording, resulting in less debris accumulation, which could otherwise adversely affect the performance of the proximity recording head. This self-limiting burnishing action overcomes the flying height variation due to manufacturing tolerances and provides extremely small and uniform magnetic spacing, which greatly enhances the proximity recording. Moreover, the burnishing action also achieves an improved flying stability and a reduction in the altitude sensitivity.

Sandwich diamond-like carbon overcoat for use in slider designs of proximity recording heads

Plural carbon-containing overcoats are formed on a media-facing surface of an information storage system head. The plural carbon-containing overcoats can mitigate corrosion without increasing head-media spacing. A first of the overcoats may be formed prior to creation of contact or air bearing features on the media-facing surface, with a second overcoat formed after creation of air bearing features. The first overcoat may be etched back substantially or completely prior to formation of the second overcoat. Laminated carbon-containing overcoats may have greater strength and/or coverage than non-laminated overcoats of the same thickness. The overcoats may be formed of several forms of diamond-like carbon (DLC) or silicon-carbide (SiC).

Growing community of inventors

Pleasanton, CA, United States of America

Eric Thomas Sladek