Air bearing area configuration for reducing flying height hump across a stroke

摘要

A disk drive is provided having a dynamic flying height or touch down power profile that is substantially flat across its stroke along the radius of a recording medium. At least two air-channeling elements are provided in a slider of the disk drive, that with the read/write head, flies above a surface of the recording medium. At an inner diameter and an outer diameter of the recording medium, the at least two air-channeling elements direct incoming air flow to an air bearing space defined by a bottom surface of the slider and the surface of the recording medium, increasing the flying height of the slider/read/write head at the inner diameter and outer diameter of the recording medium, thereby negating the effect of a middle diameter flying height hump of the recording medium.

主权项

1. A slider, comprising:
a leading edge and a trailing edge; a transducer proximate to the trailing edge for performing read and write operations on a recording medium; a fence proximate to and parallel to the leading edge; a trench positioned behind the fence; and at least two air-channeling elements configured to direct air flow received by the trench substantially towards an air bearing space between the slider and the recording medium, wherein each of the at least two air-channeling elements is etched into a leading step of the slider, and wherein the leading step is etched to a depth of approximately 0.1 to 0.2 microns below the highest point of an air bearing surface of the slider.