Peter Raymond Segar

Slip sliding away: A novel head–disk interface and its tribology (invited)

The continuous reduction of head–disk spacing has made the use of supersmooth media a necessity in gaining ultrahigh magnetic recording areal density. To overcome the stiction barrier associated with supersmooth disks without compromising the head flyability requirement, texture features can be transferred from the disk surface to the slider surface, creating a new type of head–disk interface, the padded slider interface. The tribology of a padded slider interface is in many ways different from that of the traditional head–disk interface with texture on the disk only. In this article, various unique tribological aspects of the padded slider interface are discussed in detail. Both theoretical modeling results and experimental data are presented to elucidate the stiction, friction, and wear behaviors of this novel head–disk interface. It is shown that the padded slider technology offers a viable alternative to the ramp load technology as a head–disk interface solution for the ultrahigh areal density.

The Effect of Vapor Phase Chemicals on Head/Disk Interface Tribology

Outgassing from disk drive materials can adversely affect head/disk tribological performance. The reliability risk of out-gassed contamination continues to rise as storage capacity demands force reductions in head flying heights and disk surface roughness. A tribochemical test method was previously described and applied to study the effects of outgassing from pressure sensitive adhesives on tribological performance. The authors have used this technique to evaluate the effects of pure chemicals on stiction, fly stiction, durability, and head smearing for five chemicals that are commonly used in the formulation of adhesives and other drive materials. Acrylic acid vapors caused significant increases in stiction, fly stiction and head smearing. Benzothiazole affected stiction rise and fly stiction but did not affect head smearing while tributylamine vapors affected fly stiction and head smearing. Acetic acid and diethylhexylphthalate did not significantly affect head/disk interface performance. No obvious rel...