Western Digital (fremont), Inc.

Western Digital Corporation

Forhad Hossain

Biao Sun

Ji-Feng Ying

Eric Thomas Sladek

Yong Hu

Pablo G Levi

Manuel Anaya Dufresne

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 head for use in a magnetic hard disk drive or other information storage device includes a novel air bearing surface. The novel air bearing surface includes two leading pads separated by a longitudinal channel, and a trailing pad. The leading pads and trailing pad each include a major surface that lies in a first plane. A side pad, laterally spaced from the trailing pad, includes a major surface that lies in a second plane that is parallel to the first plane but that is offset from the first plane by a shallow recess depth in the range of 0.5 microinches to two microinches. The side pad also includes a major surface that lies in a third plane that is parallel to the second plane but that is offset from the first plane by standard recess depth in the range of three to five microinches.

Air bearing slider with a side pad having a shallow recess depth

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 utilizes a triple-etch, high pitch-stiffness side rail ABS design. The slider is characterized by a relatively deep shallow recession at its leading edge, which maximizes the cavity area while at the same time increases the pitch angle to achieve DLC pad clearance as required by smooth media ABS designs. The slider ABS has a shallower recession at the trailing edge, which provides low gram-load sensitivity and low flying standard deviation. The slider ABS further presents a decreased sensitivity in response to altitude variations.

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Fremont, CA, United States of America

Forhad Hossain