Abstract
A gap flying height (FH) of less than 5 nm between the read/write element and the surface of the disk is required for ultrahigh density recording. A stable and constant FH must also be sustained in the presence of altitude and temperature changes and manufacturing tolerance. A FH adjustment or controlled slider that is capable of adjusting its gap FH has been proposed previously. In this paper we demonstrate an inexpensive and low-temperature approach for integrating piezoelectric materials in the fabrication of current small form-factor Al2O3-TiC sliders. A bulk PZT sheet is bonded onto the back of row-bars and the sliders are separated by a standard dicing process. It requires no deep reactive-ion etching (DRIE) or high temperature processes and is suitable for mass production. A conventional design and a new special air bearing surface (ABS) design have been fabricated and tested by an optical profiler and a FH tester. A nonflying actuation stroke of 0.6–0.8 nm/V has been observed. The FH measurements showed that the ABS plays a key role in increasing the actuation efficiency, which also agrees well with the numerical analysis.
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Acknowledgments
This study is supported by the Computer Mechanics Laboratory (CML) at University of California, Berkeley and the Information Storage Industry Consortium (INSIC). J. Y. Juang has also been supported by The California State Nanotechnology Fellowship. The authors would like to thank T. Neumann, Y. Midori, N. Bach and V. Chow of Hitachi Global Storage Technology for assistance in the fabrication, measurements and useful discussions. This work was originally presented in the 2006 ASME/JSME Joint Conference on Micromechatronics for Information and Precision Equipment, June 21–23, 2006, Santa Clara, CA, USA.
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Juang, JY., Ambekar, R.P., Bogy, D.B. et al. Fabrication and experimental study of Al2O3-TiC sliders with piezoelectric nanoactuators for flying height control. Microsyst Technol 13, 751–757 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00542-006-0268-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00542-006-0268-y