Investigation of Head-Disk Interactions at Ultra-low Flying HDI

In this work, head-disk interactions are studied when flying height becomes lower than laser bump height on the landing zone of a disk. With the reduction of the spinning speed in a spin stand, the flying height is decreased under the height of laser bumps. Conventional and padded pico sliders sweep between landing Bone and data zone and, then, the dynamic behavior of the pico sliders and head-disk impacts are investigated using AE and stiction/friction signals. After 200n cycle-sweep tests, bearing analysis and AFM analysis indicate that there are some signs of wear and plastic deformation in the landing zone of a disk, although AE and stiction/friction signals are not significantly changed during the sweep tests. The experimental results of this paper suggest that in CSS tests at component level, more rigorous examination methods of wear and plastic deformation might be necessary as flying height becomes getting lower.