SCALING CRITERIA FOR SLIDER MINIATURIZATION USING THE GENERALIZED REYNOLDS-EQUATION

The current trend in the magnetic storage industry is the reduction of the slider size and the height at which the slider flies over a rigid disk. Lower flying heights are achieved by miniaturizing sliders and reducing the normal load. In this paper, force scaling criteria are de termined for 3370 and 3370K sliders that are dynamically loaded or ope rated in contact start/stop mode. Two forms of the generalized Reynold s equation (the first-order and continued fraction formulations) are i ncorporated into the analysis. The new scaling equation relates the st eady-state flying height to design and operating parameters such as th e disk velocity, normal load, ambient pressure, and the shape and dime nsion of the slider rail. The resulting quadratic equation contains tw o slider design dependent parameters which are calculated from two ful l scale numerical solutions to the generalized Reynolds equation for t he slider design of interest. The new scaling equation accurately fits numerical and experimental results over an extremely wide range of am bient pressures, normal loads, disk velocities, and slider size reduct ion. The utility of the scaling equation is that it can rapidly and ac curately predict the load required to obtain a desired flying height a t a given disk velocity for any slider geometry. The scaling analysis also has the ability to qualitatively account for surface roughness ef fects. The equation could be applied to the design of contact recordin g devices, if surface roughness effects could be quantitatively incorp orated into the analysis.