scholarly journals Low Molecular Weight Z-Tetraol Boundary Lubricant Films in Hard Disk Drives

2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. J. Waltman ◽  
H. Deng

Lower molecular weight Z-Tetraol films exhibit increased mechanical spacing in the slider-disk interface due to a lower z-profile. An increased resistance to lubricant disturbance on the disk surface (e.g., lube moguls) with decreasing film thickness is attributed to an increasing contribution from the polar component of the disjoining pressure. Evaporative loss at temperatures typically encountered in a hard-disk drive also increases with decreasing molecular weight but is strongly dependent on the initial bonded fraction.

Author(s):  
Rahul Rai ◽  
Puneet Bhargava ◽  
Bernhard Knigge ◽  
Aravind N. Murthy

Abstract Growth in the demand for higher capacity hard disk drives (HDD) has pushed the requirement for head-media spacing (HMS) to sub-nanometer levels. The drop in operational clearance makes a head-disk interface (HDI) more susceptible to potential head-wear and contamination related issues. Such degradation processes are often accompanied by a noticeable shift in the head-disk clearance. Hence monitoring an interface for a spacing change can be helpful in early detection of its imminent failure. In this paper, we present a method to detect the change in head-disk spacing using an embedded contact sensor (ECS). This technique involves the analysis of ECS dynamic response for an interface that is subjected to heater induced spacing modulations. As the head moves closer to the disk surface, the magnitude of the ECS frequency components can be used to determine the ‘characteristic spacing’ which can be used as a metric to detect any physical change for a given interface.


Author(s):  
Aravind N. Murthy ◽  
Eric M. Jayson ◽  
Frank E. Talke

Most hard disk drives manufactured in the last few years have Load/Unload (L/UL) technology. As opposed to the Contact Start/Stop (CSS) technology, L/UL technology has the advantage of improved areal density because of more disk space availability and better shock performance. The latter characteristic has significant benefits during the non-operational state of the hard disk drive since head/disk interactions are eliminated and the head is parked on a ramp adjacent to the disk. However, even if head/disk interactions are absent, other failure modes may occur such as lift-tab damage and dimple separation leading to flexure damage. A number of investigations have been made to study the response of the head disk interface with respect to shock when the head is parked on the disk ([1], [2]). In this paper, we address the effect of non-operational shock for L/UL disk drives.


2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 ◽  
pp. 1-6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Koji Sonoda

The influence of organic compounds (OCs) on the head-disk interface (HDI) was investigated in hard disk drives. The drives were tested at high temperature to investigate the influence of gaseous OC and to confirm if the gaseous OC forms droplets on head or disk. In the experiment, errors occurred by readback signal jump and we observed the droplets on the disk after full stroke seek operation of the drive. Our results indicate that the gaseous OC condensed on the slider and caused flying instability resulting in drive failure due to slider contact with a droplet of liquid OC. Furthermore, this study shows that kinetic viscosity of OC is an important factor to cause drive failure using alkane reagents.


Author(s):  
Jianbin Nie ◽  
Roberto Horowitz

This paper discusses the design and implementation of two track-following controllers for dual-stage hard disk drive servo systems. The first controller is designed by combining an outer loop sensitivity-decoupling (SD) controller with an inner loop disturbance observer (DOB). The second is designed by combining mixed H2/H∞ synthesis techniques with an add-on integral action. The designed controllers were implemented and evaluated on a disk drive with a PZT-actuated suspension-based dual-stage servo system. Position error signal (PES) for the servo system was obtained by measuring the slider displacement with an LDV and injecting a simulated track runout.


Author(s):  
Eric M. Jayson ◽  
Frank E. Talke

Hard disk drives must be designed to withstand shock during operation. Large movements of the slider during shock impulse can cause reading and writing errors, track misregistration, or in extreme cases, damage to the magnetic material and loss of data. The design of the air bearing contour determines the steady state flying conditions of the slider as well as dynamic flying conditions, including shock response. In this paper a finite element model of the hard disk drive mechanical components was developed to determine the time dependent forces and moments applied to the slider during a shock event. The time dependent forces and moments are applied as external loads in a solution of the dynamic Reynolds equation to determine the slider response to a shock event. The genetic algorithm was then used to optimize the air bearing contour for optimum shock response while keeping the steady flying conditions constant. The results show substantial differences in the spacing modulation of the head/disk interface after a shock as a function of the design of the air bearing contour.


Author(s):  
Sung-Chang Lee ◽  
George W. Tyndall ◽  
Mike Suk

Flying clearance distribution with thermo-mechanical actuation is characterized. Especially, what factors contributing to variation of flying clearance are identified based on thermo-mechanical actuation profiles taken from burn-in process of hard disk drives and Gage R&R test of touch down repeatability. In addition, the effect of static temperature compensation scheme on flying clearance distribution is investigated and disadvantages of static adaptation to temperature change are identified. In order to avoid catastrophic early HDI failures due to poor static temperature compensation, we need to dynamically adjust flying clearance whenever environmental change is detected. Otherwise we need to utilize individual temperature sensitivity values of each flying head to adjust thermo-mechanical actuation amount accordingly with temperature change.


Author(s):  
Hequn Min ◽  
Xiaoyang Huang ◽  
Qide Zhang ◽  
Xin Xia

This paper presents an experimental study of digital narrowband active control on the flow-induced vibrations (FIV) on the head gimbals assembly (HGA) in a working hard disk drive (HDD). Firstly, the modal testing on the HDD was carried out, in which the disk modes were analyzed with a 1-D laser Doppler vibrometer (LDV) and the HGA vibration modes with a 3-D LDV. Secondly, a digital feedback control close-loop was implemented in experiments to suppress the FIV spectrum peaks on the HGA. In this close-loop, the HGA vibrations detected by the LDV were used as feedback error signals, then the signals was passed through a digital controller to generate feedback signals to drive a piezoelectric disk to actuate feedback acoustic pressure around the HGA. Active control experiments were conducted in narrow bands on five principal peaks in the HGA off-plate vibration spectrum, around 1256Hz, 1428Hz, 2141Hz, 2519Hz and 3469Hz, respectively. It is shown that distinct suppression of at least 10 dB can be achieved on all these HGA vibration peaks.


Author(s):  
Zhimin He ◽  
Jianqiang Mou ◽  
Kheong Sann Chan ◽  
Suet Hoi Lam ◽  
Boon Long See ◽  
...  

One of the issues in VCM rotary actuation in hard disk drives (HDDs) is the excessive sensitivity of the system to the skew angle. The rotation of the VCM from the inner diameter (ID) to the outer diameter (OD) of the disk results in an angle of skew between the read/write head and the track. The difference in skew angle, between the ID to the OD can be as large as 25 to 30 degrees in conventional 3.5″ and 2.5″ HDDs. A large skew angle affects the slider’s flying performance and off-track capability, causing an increase in side reading and writing, and thus reduces the achievable recording density. Large skewed actuation also complicates the position error signal calibration process in the hard disk drive servo loop. This paper presents a 4 link mechanism which can be designed to achieve near zero skew actuation in hard disk drives. The profiles of the arm, suspension, and links can be designed and optimized such that the skew angle is close to zero while the VCM actuator rotates from the ID to the OD. Study shows that the 4-link mechanism does not degrade the resonance performance along the tracking direction compared to a conventional actuator.


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