Numerical Quasi-Static Analysis of Ultralow Flying Slider During Track-Seeking Motion Over Discrete Track Media

Abstract

It is important to accurately estimate the flying height (FH) of the ultralow flying slider in hard disk drive (HDD). Especially, during the track-seeking motion, the FH can change by the motion from inner diameter (ID) to outer diameter (OD) and vice versa. The FH variation induced by the track-seeking motion happens over discrete track media (DTM). Therefore, the FH variation during track-seeking is an important issue and it certainly should be considered for DTM. In this research, we performed the track-seeking simulation using quasi-static approximation to reduce the computation time. The effects on groove depth, width, and pitch with the effective skew angle taken into account were investigated with the simulation. As a result, we calculated the absolute change in FH as a function of the effective skew angle and groove depth. Finally, we proposed that the model that considers the effective skew angle over DTM should be adopted in the track-seeking motion-studies.