A new electrical overstress (EOS) test for magnetic recording heads

Electrical overstress (EOS) damage to magnetic recording heads due to repetitive, sinusoidal, low voltage noise is studied for the first time. A test method is described and used to measure the failure voltage and current for various combinations of signal connections from 200 kHz to 1 GHz. A resonance at 320 MHz, where the current flow increases dramatically and causes severe sensor damage at only 550 mV, was observed. A lumped-element SPICE model is developed and used to extend the experimental measurements. It is concluded that it is important to measure and understand the effect of low voltage, high frequency noise transients on extremely ESD sensitive devices.