SLIDER-DISK INTERACTION DURING THE LANDING PROCESS

In rigid disk drives, slider/disk interface (SDI) wear should ideally occur only during the start/stop (S/S) process. Good S/S wear performa nce is crucial, but often difficult to achieve. This is due in part to a lack of understanding of slider/disk interaction during the S/S pro cess. The intent of this study is to provide a thorough theoretical mo del to aid in our understanding of the slider/disk interaction during the landing process. In contrast to assessments in the literature, thi s model includes more rigorous surface characterization, the statistic al nature of summit interaction, and the nonlinear rarefaction effects in the modified Reynolds equation. In this paper, we present results of a baseline slider/disk configuration, together with a crown sensiti vity study.