Optimization of heaters for flying height adjustment

Sustaining an ultra-low and stable flying height (FH) of disk head in hard disk drive (HDD) is crucial for achieving high areal densities in magnetic recording. For this purpose, and in order to reduce the FH loss, a novel active FH control method with the concept of individual and in situ FH control by means of built-in micro-actuators (namely heater) is proposed and applied in the latest generations of HDDs. In this paper, we mainly investigate the heater design and its effects on the performance of TFC slider. Discussions on the effects of certain parameters including input power, location and size of the heater are conducted. The aim is to identify the dominant parameters that significantly affect the efficiency of the heater. In particular, the heater coil is proposed exclusively. Based on the present study, the improving techniques for cascade structure are developed, and the developing bend is also discussed.