Friction force of negative pressure sliders for proximity recording

We investigated the friction force between the trailing edge of the center pad or rail of negative pressure sliders and the textured disk surface as a function of flying height at reduced air pressure. In addition, we proposed the simple contact model and compared experimental friction force with calculated contact force to evaluate the influence of slider design parameters on the contact force. Results show that the contact force is significantly influenced by the pitch air-bearing stiffness, the distance between the pivot point and the contact point, and the interference pitch angle defined as the difference between the flying pitch angle on the smooth glass disk and the contact pitch angle on the textured disk.