A dual stage slider-suspension design for nanospaced recording

This article presents a novel design of dual stage slider suspension for 5- 8 nm spaced recording. The primary slider-suspension design is the same as what has been used in the current hard disk drives. However, slider's ABS i s redesigned with two side channels and a V-shaped deflector to prevent air borne particles from entering the interface between read/write pad and disk surface. The secondary slider suspension is a W-shaped microstructure fabr icated by semiconductor technology. Details of computer simulation and eval uations of the new design were conducted and are reported, including a flyi ng performance study of the primary slider design, a particle trajectory st udy, suspension structure analysis, and the mechanical durability estimatio n of the read/write pad. (C) 1999 American Institute of Physics. [S0021-897 9(99)71508-2].