Biquadratic models for slider airbearing surfaces

A new method to model the airbearing surface of arbitrarily shaped sliders for numerical simulations is presented. It uses a biquadratic surface fit calculated from profilometer data using the least squares method. Both the accuracy of the surface representation and the numerical flying height results for the biquadratic model and the standard crown/cross-crown model are compared. Although the modeling results are similar, the biquadratic fit is better suited to future slider designs due to its unambiguous definition.