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Tribological Study of Contact Interfaces in Hard Disk Drives

Abstract

To achieve an areal density of 1 terabits per square inch (1.55 gigabits/mm2) in hard disk drives, the size of magnetic grains in hard disks has been reduced to approximately 7 nm and the spacing between the magnetic head and the disk has been minimized to 1 to 2 nm. At a spacing on the order of 1 to 2 nm between the head and the disk, it is likely that contacts between the magnetic head and the disk occur during reading and writing, causing erasure of data or even failure of the head/disk interface. Wear particles can be generated as a consequence of contacts between slider and disk, and if particles enter the head/disk interface, catastrophic failure of the head/disk interface can occur. To reduce the generation of wear particles and avoid failure of the head/disk interface, it is important to investigate how the tribological performance of all contact interfaces in hard disk drives can be improved.

In this dissertation, the tribological performance of the most important contact interfaces in a hard disk drive are investigated with a focus on the generation of wear particles and lubricant migration. First, fretting wear is investigated to study the effect of a diamond-like carbon (DLC) overcoat on wear of the dimple/gimbal interface. A numerical simulation model based on finite element analysis was developed to explain the experimental results. Then, lubricant migration on the air bearing surface and its effect on the head medium spacing (HMS) was investigated as a function of temperature, slider position, and “parking time” of the slider on the ramp. Thereafter, the thermal response of a thermal sensor during contact with asperities on the disk surface was analyzed. The effects of experimental and environmental conditions on the resistance change of the sensor were studied. Finally, experimental and numerical investigations were performed to analyze contact between the suspension lift tab and the ramp in hard disk drives. The voice coil motor current was used to characterize the change of the friction force and the generation of wear debris at the lift tab/ramp interface during load/unload testing. Numerical simulations were performed to analyze how to reduce contact stress between the lift-tab and the ramp.

The results of this dissertation will be helpful in improving the tribological performance of hard disk drives.

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