Slider Air Bearing Design Enhancements for High Speed Flexible Disk Recording

Abstract

The current effort was motivated largely by the fact that computing and communication platforms are becoming more portable and mobile with increased demands for both speed and disk storage. This work makes use of an asymmetric opposed slider arrangement to provide both static and dynamic improvements to the recording head air bearing interface for high speed flexible disk applications. The combination of a longitudinally slotted rail opposed by an uninterrupted rail that functions as a noncontact hydrodynamic pressure pad causes the disk to deflect at the submicron level over critical areas of the slider interface. This allows the required static minimum flying height to be focused over the recording transducer while higher clearances are positioned elsewhere, resulting in minimized exposure to contact between slider and disk. The high stiffness and low flying height of the air film at the recording element together with the low stiffness and high flying height of the opposing air film provides a noncontact air bearing interface that is especially immune to mechanical shock. A computer code called FLEXTRAN was developed that provides both static and dynamic numerical solutions of the air bearing interface composed of two opposed gimbal mounted sliders loaded against a high speed flexible disk. Simulations of the asymmetric opposed slider configuration are presented and compared with those of other slider air bearing designs.