Study on soft-particle intrusion in a head/disk interface of load/unload drives

Soft-particle intrusion tests were carried out on load/unload drives. These tests show that to prevent particles intruding into a head/disk interface (HDI) the HDI must be designed with a minimum step height of the slider leading edge. Adhesion of particles to slider rail surface results in slider-disk contact. Even a light intrusion of particles into the leading edge step leads to a decrease both in flying height and the pitch of the slider.