Study of air bearing stiffness and damping characteristics at flying heights of 2 mu in.

The air bearing performance of four types of 50% (nano) slider contours, na mely, taper nat, transverse-pressure contour, IBM negative pressure, and a combination of the transverse and the negative-pressure contour slider, are investigated and compared by using numerical simulation. These sliders wer e previously optimized so as to By as nearly constant as possible over the chosen data band with a near zero roll. The gap flying height is 2.0 mu in. (50.8 nm) at the inside diameter of a 95-mm (3.5 in.) hard disk spinning a t 7200 rpm. Two Slider skew angles, -12.5 degrees and 0 degrees, at the ins ide diameter radial locations are considered. To study the damping dynamics , each slider is struck with a vertical impulse toward the disk, and the 3 degrees of freedom slider motion is computed. The novel product of air bear ing vertical stiffness and the damping coefficient is then used as a measur e to rank the air bearing performance of the four slider contour types.