Spacing fluctuation induced by disk clamping distortion

This paper reports the results of study on the spacing fluctuation of sliders induced by the disk clamping distortion. The investigations were carried out with in situ flying height testing technology introduced by the authors. Various shapes of disk deformation were studied in the experiment. Results obtained show that the spacing fluctuation is a function of the amplitude of the disk clamping distortion. Results also exhibit that higher air bearing stiffness reduces the amount of flying height (FH) variation. Also, it is interesting to notice that the lower FH slider can introduce a higher percentage of FH variation compared with the slider of higher FH. Investigations are also extended to study the effect of slider's loading force on the FH variation of the slider. Results indicate that the changes of the loading force for the low FH slider could intensify the FH variation.