Hitachi Global Storage Technologies Netherlands B.v.

Hgst Netherlands, B.v.

Sujit Kirpekar

John Thomas Contreras

David John Seagle

Bernhard E Knigge

Oscar Jaime Ruiz

Peter Michael Baumgart

Andrew Chiu

Katalin Pentek

Martin Yu-Wen Chen

Techniques of the present invention include detecting a touchdown between a read/write head of a disk drive and a surface of a magnetic disk using multiple touchdown sensors located at an air-bearing surface (ABS). The multiple sensors increase the likelihood that a touchdown event&#x2014;i.e., a portion of the ABS of the head contacting the underlying magnetic disk surface&#x2014;will be detected. During touchdown, the portion of the head contacting the magnetic disk generates frictional heat which changes a characteristic (e.g., the electrical resistance) of at least one of the sensors located at the ABS. When the sensors are connected to a detection circuit, the changing characteristic may be monitored to identify a touchdown event. The touchdown sensors may be, for example, electrically connected in either series or parallel to the detection circuit. Thus, as long as the electrical resistance of one of the sensors is changed, a touchdown event may be detected.

Multiple-sense thermo-resistive sensor for contact detection of read-write heads

A hard disk drive (HDD) including a first resistive temperature detector (RTD) configured to detect a temperature generated by proximity of a slider and a media. The first RTD is proximate an air bearing surface (ABS) of the slider. The HDD also includes a second RTD configured to detect at least one temperature correlated to a fly-height of the slider. The second RTD is not required to be proximate the ABS of the slider. HDD also includes a read/write integrated circuit (IC) configured to determine the fly-height of the slider based on detection of temperatures by the first RTD and the second RTD.

Fly-height management in a hard disk drive (HDD)

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Fremont, CA, United States of America

Sujit Kirpekar