Parametric simulation of piezoelectric flying height control slider using shear-mode deformation

Abstract

The piezoelectric flying height control slider has recently been implemented in magnetic recording disk drives to reduce the flying height. This paper performs the electromechanical simulation and air-bearing simulation to investigate the effects of the shear-model deformation on the static flying attitude of PZT slider. The location of PZT sheet and air bearing surface of slider are investigated to achieve a low flying height and robust head-disk interface. The results show that a short distance of the PZT sheet to the trailing edge of the slider can help to achieve a low flying height. A small center-trailing pad of the slider can also help to achieve a low flying height, but cannot prevent the reduction in pitch angle. The depth of the center-trailing pad does not change the reduction ratio of the pitch angle when increasing the drive voltage. A big pitch angle value is needed to avoid the pitch angle falling below zero at a high drive voltage.