Development of contact recording head for HDD

A novel contact recording slider design for HDD, which continuously contacts a disk surface, was investigated. The design of the slider, which has a wide air bearing surface in the front and a contact portion in the rear, enables precise division of suspension load between hydrodynamic force and contact force under certain tolerances. Therefore, stable contact between the slider and the disk is accomplished with small contact force, and the wear of the slider can be reduced. Experiment shows the small spacing fluctuation (<5 nm) at the contact portion with small contact force (<200 uN).