Design and Experiment investigation of disk bump to improve unload performance in HDD

HDD에서 언로드 성능향상을 위한 디스크 범프의 설계 및 실험 연구

Load/Unload technology has more benefits than the conventional CSS technology. However, it remains unsolved technical problem on the unloading process. While the slider climbs up the ramp at the outer edge of the disk, the possibility of the slider-disk contact by lift-off force and rebound of the slider increases. This paper focuses on no slider-disk contact. To prevent the slider-disk contact, we apply the disk bump on disk outer edge proceeding unload. Firstly, in the simulation, the bump dimension is determined by changing bump design parameters. Secondly, dynamic stability of slider have to be checked on disk bump before unload analysis, and unload analysis is performed by applying stable bump shapes to unload simulation. Thirdly, we select optimal bump shape to improve unload performance by unload analysis. Finally, in the experiment, the disk bump is mechanically manufactured by pressing disk surface using diamond tip. That is variously processed by changing pressing pressure. After confirming bump shape by nano-scanner, proper bump shape is applied to real experimental unload process. Through this investigation, we propose the optimal bump design to prevent the slider-disk contact, and then we can realize improved unloading performance.