An Air Bearing Slider for Small Diameter Disk Storage Devices

The authors propose a novel slider design. The tri-pad slider has three separate air bearing surfaces, one in the front of the slider and the other two in the back of the slider. This design permits the optimization of the air bearing stiffness and flying attitude without changing the minimum flying height. It can minimize the effect of skew angle on the flying height, and offers ample room for a larger size thin film head element. Samples were fabricated and flying characteristics at several velocities, as well as the dynamic flying stability, were investigated.