EFFECT OF SLIDER BURNISH ON DISK DAMAGE DURING DYNAMIC LOAD UNLOAD/

Two of the most difficult issues to resolve in current design of head/ disk interface in magnetic recording devices are stiction and durabili ty problems. One method of overcoming these problems is by implementin g a technology known as load/unload, where the system is designed so t hat the slider never touches the disk surface. One potential problem w ith this type of system is slider/disk contact induced disk defects. T he objective of this paper is to show that the likelihood of disk scra tches caused by head/disk contacts during the load/unload process can be significantly decreased by rounding the edges of the air-bearing su rface. Using the resistance method, we observe that head/disk contacts burnish the corners of the slider and thereby decrease exponentially with load/unload cycles. A well burnished slider rarely causes and dis k damage thus resulting in an interface with significantly higher reli ability. A simple hertzian contact stress analysis indicates that the contact stress at the head/disk interface can be greatly decreased by increasing the radius of curvature of the air-bearing surface edges.