Effects of Moving Three-Dimensional Nano-Textured Disk Surfaces on Thin Film Gas Lubrication Characteristics for Flying Head Slider Bearings in Magnetic Disk Storage

This paper describes the effects of moving three-dimensional nano-textured or patterned disk surfaces on thin film gas lubrication characteristics for flying head slider bearings in magnetic disk storage. In order to perform the most realistic simulation of slider flying characteristics over the textured disk surfaces, the direct numerical simulation method is used, instead of using various averaging techniques. Therefore, a deterministic description of the texture is adopted in this study. A dynamic analysis of the slider responses can be carried out, by solving the air bearing equation based on the linearized Boltzmann equation with the equations of motion of the slider under the excitation of the moving texture simultaneously. The slider’s dynamic responses to moving spaced bumps disk surfaces, including both the circumferentially and radially ridged disk surfaces, are computed systematically and basic slider dynamics over patterned disk surfaces is investigated. The effects of the texture area ratios (= texture width/texture pitch) in the circumferential and radial directions on the slider spacing dynamic modulations as well as the slider static flying characteristics are also studied. Furthermore, the effects of three kinds of texture patterns on the slider flying characteristics are investigated. Considering those simulation results, the design optimization for the texture pattern that minimizes not only the slider static flying height increase but also spacing dynamic modulations is discussed in order to achieve ultra-high density proximity magnetic recording.