Hitachi Global Storage Technologies Netherlands B.v.

Western Digital Technologies, Inc.

Hgst Netherlands, B.v.

Weidong Huang

Yong Hu

Lee K Dorius

Sanford A Bolasna

Robert Nolan Payne

Biao Sun

Oscar Jaime Ruiz

Taichi Nakamura

Xiaodong Che

David E Fowler

Terence Tin-Lok Lam

Zhong-heng Lin

Alex Shteyn

Erhard Theodor Schreck

Barry C Stipe

Yoshinori Takeuchi

Hidekazu Kohira

Qing Dai

Kenji Kuroki

Qinghua Zeng

Kia Moh Teo

Charles Mathew Mate

Nobuyuki Okunaga

Sripathi Vangipuram Canchi

Nan Liu

Katsuhide Tanaka

Kenji Tasaka

Xiaojuan Ran

Akiko Tadamasa

Yuichiro Sano

Sang Hoon Kim

Ehsan Rismaniyazdi

John Herber

Disclosed herein are sliders with at least one notch-cut in the trailing pad, methods of making them, and data storage devices comprising them. In some embodiments, a slider comprises a leading-edge surface, a trailing-edge surface, and an air-bearing surface (ABS) that includes a trailing pad situated closer to the trailing-edge surface than to the leading-edge surface, wherein the trailing pad comprises at least one notch-cut (e.g., two notch-cuts) in a trailing side of the trailing pad. The at least one notch-cut provides higher pressure at the recording head situated in the trailing pad and higher thermal flight control efficiency without a commensurate increase in touch-down power. As a result, the temperature around the recording head is lower than without the at least one notch-cut, thereby improving the lifetime of the recording head and data storage device.

Slider air bearing designs with higher pressure and higher thermal flying height (TFC) efficiency

Disclosed herein are embodiments of sliders in which the length of the slider is less than or equal to its width. Also disclosed are data storage devices (e.g., hard disk drives) comprising such sliders. The sliders may include one or more air-bearing surface features to compensate for the lower aspect ratio and to meet performance targets (fly height, roll stiffness, etc.). Such features may include, for example, a trailing-edge pad (which may include an efficiency-flattening hole), a first cavity between a first side of the trailing-edge pad and a first side edge, and a non-intersecting second cavity between a second side of the trailing-edge pad and a second side edge. A slider may also or alternatively include a leading pad and, in some embodiments, a particle trapping structure between the leading pad and the slider's leading edge.

Sliders with low aspect ratio

Disclosed here is a ramp for receiving a lift tab of a hard disk drive. The ramp comprises a first side and a second side, where the first side is spaced apart from the second side. The ramp also comprises an inclined surface along which the lift tab slides as it moves in a first direction to remove a read/write head from a disk of the hard disk drive. The inclined surface inclines from a leading edge of the ramp to an intermediate edge of the ramp in the first direction. The inclined surface has a width that is generally perpendicular to the first direction and extends from the first side to the second side. The inclined surface has a width that is generally perpendicular to the first direction and extends from the first side to the second side. The tapered portion defines an oblique angle relative to the first direction.

Tangential and longitudinal glide ramp for magnetic storage device

Disclosed herein are slider designs having improved trailing air flow dams, and data storage devices including such sliders. In some embodiments, a slider comprises a trailing edge and an air-bearing surface (ABS) comprising a trailing edge pad, and a trailing air flow dam coupled to the trailing edge pad, wherein, in an ABS view of the slider, the trailing air flow dam is recessed from and curves away from the trailing edge. In the ABS view, a shape of the trailing air flow dam may comprise two segments. The slider also has a leading edge and may at least one sub-ambient pressure cavity adjacent to the trailing air flow dam and disposed between the trailing air flow dam and the leading edge. A contact point of the trailing air flow dam may be at least 50 microns from a corner of the slider.

Air-bearing surface designs with a curved trailing air flow dam

Disclosed herein are sliders that include at least one leading-edge pocket, data storage devices comprising such sliders, and methods of manufacturing such sliders. The at least one leading-edge pocket increases the amount of gas flowing into the leading edge area of the ABS, which can improve the performance of the slider in low-pressure environments, such as sealed helium data storage devices. The at least one leading-edge pocket can have a variety of shapes, sizes, and features to achieve the desired slider performance (e.g., fly height, stability, etc.) in low-pressure environments.

Slider gas-bearing surface designs with leading-edge pockets

Disclosed herein are sliders having air-bearing surface (ABS) designs to mitigate the effects of smear on near-field transducers used in data storage devices, and data storage devices comprising such sliders. A slider comprises a leading edge, a trailing edge, a NFT, and an ABS with features to increase oxygen concentration near the NFT. The ABS comprises a channel configured to direct gas in a direction from the leading edge toward the trailing edge and a funnel region connected to the channel, disposed between the channel and the NFT, and configured to receive gas from the channel. In an ABS view of the slider, a width of the funnel region along a longitudinal axis passing through the NFT monotonically increases with distance from the NFT.

Slider gas-bearing surface designs to mitigate effects of smear in heat-assisted magnetic recording

Disclosed herein is a magnetic storage device that comprises a housing defining an interior cavity. The magnetic storage device also comprises at least one magnetic disk in the interior cavity of the housing. The magnetic storage device further comprises at least one read-write head in the interior cavity and configured to read data from and write data to the magnetic disk. The read-write head comprises a heat-assisted magnetic storage (HAMR) head. The magnetic storage device additionally comprises a gas, comprising oxygen and helium, sealed in the interior cavity of the housing. A percent concentration of oxygen in the gas is greater than or equal to 3%. A pressure of the gas is between 10% and 70%, inclusive, of atmospheric pressure. A relative humidity within the interior cavity is less than 5%, inclusive. A percent concentration of helium in the gas is less than or equal to 90%.

Magnetic storage device with heat-assisted magnetic storage head and associated method of manufacture

Disclosed herein are sliders that include segmented structures for trapping particles while providing adequate airflow to meet pitch stability objectives. A slider includes a vertical structure and a segmented structure disposed adjacent to the base of the vertical structure. The segmented structure comprises a plurality of particle-trapping segments and at least one gap, where each pair of two consecutive particle-trapping segments is separated by a gap. When the slider ABS faces upward, each gap is at a level that is higher than the floors of the particle-trapping segments on either side of the gap. In some embodiments, the segmented structure includes at least three particle-trapping segments and at least two gaps. In some embodiments, the lengths of the particle trapping segments account for at least eighty percent of the overall length of the segmented structure.

Slider air-bearing surface designs with segmented particle-trapping structures

Disclosed herein are sliders with particle-trapping structures for trapping particles that could otherwise adversely affect the performance of a data storage device, and data storage devices comprising such sliders. A slider includes a leading edge, a trailing edge, a leading-edge structure located between the leading edge and the trailing edge, a vertical structure located between the leading-edge structure and the trailing edge, and a particle-trapping structure adjacent to the base of the vertical structure. The vertical structure has a leading-edge-facing surface, a side-edge-facing surface, and a base at a first level of an air-bearing surface (ABS) of the slider. The particle-trapping structure has a first portion adjacent to the leading-edge-facing surface and a second portion adjacent to the side-edge-facing surface. The particle-trapping structure comprises at least one cavity extending below the first level when the ABS is oriented upward.

Slider air-bearing surface designs with side particle-trapping structures

Disclosed herein is a hard disk drive slider having an extended three-dimensional air-bearing surface (ABS). The slider has an ABS and a back surface opposite the ABS, where at least a portion of the back surface defines a plane (i.e., if the back surface is substantially flat, the back surface itself defines the plane). Defined herein is an ABS function, which describes the characteristics of a portion of the ABS in a two-dimensional plane made by taking a cross-section of the slider perpendicular to the plane defined by the at least a portion of the back surface. The cross-section of the slider taken perpendicular to the plane has an ABS function that is a multi-valued function, which is defined herein as a relation for which, for at least one possible input value along the selected axis in the plane, the relation evaluates to two or more distinct nonzero values.

Slider with extended three-dimensional air-bearing surface

Disclosed herein are processes to manufacture sliders having extended three-dimensional air-bearing surfaces and non-transitory computer-readable storage media storing machine-executable instructions to cause at least one processor to perform the processes. A disclosed method of manufacturing a slider for use in a hard disk drive comprises removing a first portion of material from a wafer, the first portion of material comprising substrate, and, using an additive fabrication technique, forming at least a portion of a feature of the slider in a first location formerly occupied by at least some of the first portion of material. The additive fabrication technique may comprise three-dimensional printing, stereo lithography, fused deposition modeling, selective laser sintering, or multi jet modeling. Also disclosed are sliders manufactured using the disclosed methods of manufacture and disk drives comprising such sliders.

Fabrication process for slider with extended three-dimensional air-bearing surface

Disclosed herein are hard disk drive sliders having one or more tunnels between the leading-edge surface of the slider and the air-bearing surface (ABS) that may be used to control the pitch and/or fly height of the slider. A slider comprises a leading-edge surface, an ABS, and a tunnel having an entry area at the leading-edge surface and an exit area at the ABS, the tunnel for directing gas impinging on the entry area through the slider and out the exit area toward a surface of a hard disk. The tunnel may be a convergent tunnel. The tunnel may include two or more branches.

Slider with tunnel feature

Embodiments disclosed herein generally relate to a head slider within disk drive data storage devices. A head slider comprises a head body having a leading portion on a leading edge and a trailing portion on a trailing edge. The leading portion includes a first leading pad disposed at the MFS and a second leading pad disposed between the first leading pad and the leading edge. The second leading pad is recessed a first vertical distance from the MFS. One or more particle trapping holes are disposed between the first leading pad and the second leading pad. The one or more particle trapping holes are recessed a second vertical distance from the MFS, the second vertical distance being greater than the first vertical distance. Particles encountered by the leading portion may be suctioned into the one or more particle trapping holes, preventing the particles from building-up onto the MFS.

Air bearing surface design with extreme particle trapping holes for improving HDD particle robustnes

Embodiments disclosed herein generally relate to a head slider within disk drive data storage devices. A head slider comprises a head body having a leading edge, a trailing edge and an ABS. The ABS has a leading portion and a trailing portion, the trailing portion having a tail section disposed adjacent the trailing edge. The head body has three surfaces recessed from the ABS: a first surface disposed a first vertical distance, a second surface disposed a second vertical distance that is greater than the first vertical distance, and a third surface disposed a third vertical distance that is greater than the second vertical distance. A first plateau disposed at the third surface is bound between a second plateau at the first surface and a trailing pad of the tail section. Between the first plateau and the trailing pad are one or more notches disposed at the first surface.

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San Jose, CA, United States of America

Weidong Huang