Low constant flying height on silicon planar heads

Silicon planar heads (SPH) was recently described. The complete device (head slider and ABS) is fabricated on silicon wafer, with microelectronic processes. Si02 coats the rails and the head and is used by etching to shape and design ABS. ABS gives essentially flying height and a peripheral secondary surface (PSS) gives essentially flying parameters like pitch, roll etc... Fig. 1 PSS is 7000 XXXX (27 μ") down to the ABS. Compared to White concept 2, the PSS surrounds ABS including loading and trailing edges. Then we can play with many parameters: ABS shape, PSS step height, PSS area etc...ABS and PSS are fabricated full water using reactive ion etching.