• Journal of the Korean Magnetics Society
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• v.10 no.6
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• pp.310-317
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• 2000

With use of (G)MR head, thermal asperity (TA) has been a big concern in drive industry. In this study, we investigated several factors of heads and disks which affects the TA sensitivity of the drive. TA experiments were conducted by introducing the particles on the drives using a particle injection chamber. It was found that the slider ABS shape can help to reduce TA or contamination in the head/media interface. However, TA sensitivity of the drive mainly depend on the intrinsic property of (G)MR sensor. GMR head is much less sensitive to TA compared with MR head. However, in case that the same bias current was applied for both of MR and GMR head, TA sensitivity of GMR head became almost identical to that of MR head. Therefore it was found that the bias current is a dominant factor in determining TA sensitivity of the head. TA sensitivity of different types of disks was also studied. The scratch resistance of the carbon overcoat layer is the one of the main factors which influence TA rejection capability of the disks.

• Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.281-290
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• 2001

Particle contamination has been an ongoing problem affecting the reliability of the magnetic hard disk drives. Especially the recent use of MR head requires much tighter control of particle contamination due to thermal asperity (TA) phenomenon. In this study, the effects of slider air bearing surface design of TA reduction capability were investigated by manufacturing two types of sliders. Numerical methods were used to simulate the motion of particles in the head/media interface. Experiments were conducted to verify the results predicted by the numerical simulation. Drives were built and exposed to particle contamination using a particle injection chamber, which turned out to be a very simple and reliable particle generation method over conventional aerosol technique. Then the number of TA generated in the drives was recorded and compared. Also the contacts between slider and particles were investigated by acoustic emission study. It was found that a new ABS design, which has aerodynamic U-shaped rail and central flow passage, was beneficial in reducing the particle contamination on the slider.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.415-424
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• 2000

The use of magnetoresistive (MR) head requires much tighter control of particle contamination in a drive since loose particles on the disk surface will generate thermal asperities (TA). In this study, a spinoff test was performed to investigate the adhesion and removal capability of a particle to disk surface. Numerical simulation was also performed to investigate dominant factor of particle detachment and to support experimental results. It was shown that particles are detached from the disk surface by the moment derived from the centrifugal force and the drag force and that the centrifugal force and capillary force are the dominant force, which determines spin-off of a particle on the disk surface. Removal of particles smaller than several micrometers, which are the main source of TA generation, is extremely difficult since the adhesion forces exceed the centrifugal force. Lubricant types and manufacturing process also influence the particle removal. Lower bonding ratio and lower viscosity of the lubricant will help to increase the removal rate of the particles from the disk surface.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.24 no.8
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• pp.1056-1061
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• 2000

Particles existing in a hard disk drive are known as a major source of TA(thermal asperity). Researchers have investigated how particles induce the TA phenomena, but have not verified yet the reason why and how particles are generated in a HDD. The objective of this study is to investigate why and how particles are generated, and in what condition, the largest number of particles is generated. The number of particles generated in a HDD was measured over the landing zone after various rest times of slider and during various motions and positions of slider. It is found that the large number of particles was generated when the HDD was turned on after a long rest time of slider and that a few of particles were continuously generated when the slider flied over the disk surface. It is thought that the number of particles generated in a HDD was related to the rest time of slider because the rest time of slider increased stiction, and that there were intermittent contacts between the slider and the disk surface when the slider flied over the disk surface.

• 정보저장시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2005.10a
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• pp.179-183
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• 2005

Particles in the HDD can cause serious damages such as scratches and thermal asperity(TA) at the head/disk interface(HDI). Accordingly, particles cause data loss including physical and electrical damages. To improve the reliability of head-disk interface, understanding the damage characteristics at the HDI due to particle interactions is required. The materials such as $A1_2O_3$, TiC and aluminum were used in this experiment. The size and hardness of particles injected into the HDI are closely relevant to surface damage caused the data loss on the disk and head. In this paper, a variety of scratches were analyzed using scanning electron microscope(SEM) and atomic force microscope(AFM). In order to analyze defects of very small size on the disk, optical surface analyzer(OSA) was also used.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2005.10a
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• pp.484-487
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• 2005

In order to get the surface characteristics of the HDI of HDD, the surface damage mechanisms must be totally understood. Particle contamination in hard disk drives is a big concern in today's magnetic recording industry since they are major sources of reliability problems. Namely upon contact with the slider or a contaminant particle, the disk may be scratched or the particles may be embedded into the disk surface. In this work, comparison of scratches was made between those found on actual hard disks and those created using a scratch tester. It was found that ramp loading method is an effective way to make similar scratches as the actual ones. From the ramp loading condition, the relationship between the pressure and the scratch track width could be identified.