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Effect of Air and Helium on the Head–Disk Interface During Load–Unload

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Abstract

The tribological characteristics of the head–disk interface are investigated during load–unload for air and helium-filled drives as a function of the pitch static angle and the roll static angle between slider and disk. A custom-made experimental tester inside a sealed environmental chamber was used to determine the regions of “safe” pitch static angle and “safe” roll static angle in air and helium environment during the load–unload process. The presence of head–disk contacts during load–unload were evaluated by measuring the acoustic emission signal and the decrease in rotational speed of the spindle. Scanning electron microscopy and optical surface analysis were used to investigate wear of the slider and the redistribution of lubricant on the disk surface after 10,000 load–unload cycles. The results indicate that the tribological performance of the head–disk interface is improved in helium environment compared to air environment.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Vassili Syskine, Frank Obregon, Matthew Little and Linat Kim for their help with some the experiments described in this paper. The authors would also like to thank Tao Wang and Weidong Huang for their help with some of the simulation results.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Memory and Recording Research, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA

    Tan D. Trinh & Frank E. Talke

  2. Western Digital Corporation, Fremont, CA, 94539, USA

    Michael Sullivan & Sujit Kirpekar

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  1. Tan D. Trinh
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  2. Michael Sullivan
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  3. Sujit Kirpekar
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  4. Frank E. Talke
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Correspondence to Tan D. Trinh.

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Trinh, T.D., Sullivan, M., Kirpekar, S. et al. Effect of Air and Helium on the Head–Disk Interface During Load–Unload. Tribol Lett 66, 39 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11249-018-0989-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11249-018-0989-y

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