Optimization of Air Bearing Contours for Shock Performance of a Hard Disk Drive

2005 ◽  
Vol 127 (4) ◽  
pp. 878-883 ◽  
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 a 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):  
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.


2008 ◽  
Vol 22 (09n11) ◽  
pp. 1592-1597 ◽  
Author(s):  
BIN GU ◽  
DONGWEI SHU ◽  
BAOJUN SHI ◽  
GUOXING LU

As small form factor (one-inch and smaller) hard disk drives are widely used in portable consumer appliances and gadgets, their mechanical robustness is of greater concern. In the previous work, it is found that when the disk is more tightly clamped, it helps to decrease the shock response of the disk and then avoid the head slap. In this paper, the real boundary condition of the disk for a small form factor hard disk drive from Seagate is investigated numerically. The disk is clamped between the clamp and the hub. The shock response of the disk under a half-sine acceleration pulse is simulated by using the finite element method. In the finite element model, both contact between disk and clamp and contact between disk and hub are considered. According to the simulation results, how to decrease the shock response of the disk is suggested.


2003 ◽  
Vol 125 (2) ◽  
pp. 343-349 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric M. Jayson ◽  
J. Murphy ◽  
P. W. Smith ◽  
Frank E. Talke

A finite element model of a hard disk drive (HDD) is developed to investigate the transient response of an operational HDD subject to shock and vibration. The air bearing stiffness of the head disk interface is determined from a finite element solution of the Reynolds equation and approximated with linear springs. The structural response is analyzed for several types of sliders with a wide range of air bearing stiffness. Results show the response of the head-disk interface subject to shock and the modes excited by vertical and lateral vibrations of the HDD.


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):  
Jih-Ping Peng ◽  
Yu-Min Lee

The present paper investigates the shock response of a small form factor hard disk drive (HDD). Both the air bearing and the entire HDD structure are considered in the model. The air bearing is described by the compressible Reynolds equation. The HDD structure is modeled by the finite element method. The Guyan reduction method is used to reduce the number of degrees of freedom to manageable size. CML Dynamic Simulator is used to solve the coupled structure equations and air bearing Reynolds equation.


2014 ◽  
Vol 136 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Liping Li ◽  
David B. Bogy

The work performance of a hard disk drive (HDD) in mobile devices depends very much on its ability to withstand external disturbances. In this study, a detailed multibody structural model integrated with a complete air bearing model is developed to investigate the disk drive's response during external shocks. The head disk interface (HDI) failure mechanisms when the HDD is subjected to different shock cases are discussed. For a negative shock case in which the disk initially moves towards the head, with long pulse width, the air bearing becomes very stiff before the slider crashes on the disk, and the HDI fails only when the external load overcomes the air bearing force. For other shock cases, the slider contacts the disk due to a negative net bearing force caused by the slider-disk separation. Finally, a stiffer suspension design is proposed to improve the drive shock performance, especially during a positive shock, as under these conditions, the slider contacts the disk primarily due to the stiffness difference of the different drive components.


Author(s):  
Shou-Mo Zhang ◽  
Cuong-C. Vu ◽  
Qun-Yang Li ◽  
Norio Tagawa ◽  
Quan-Shui Zheng

Reduction of head-media spacing (HMS) keeps crucial during the increase of areal density of hard disk drives (HDD). The design of hard disk drive with a superlubric interface is reported with two schemes for HDI design to realize superlubricity. For the first scheme, the DLC layer is kept on the disk while removing the lubricant layer. The DLC layer on the transducer is replaced by graphene-like layer. The direct contact between head and disk could reduce the HMS to about 2.3 nm. For the second scheme, the DLC layer on disk is further replaced by graphene and the HMS could be reduced to below 1 nm. For the first scheme, the basic proof of concept experiments are conducted using micro-scale graphite island samples. Ultralow COF, with the average of 0.0344 on the interface of single crystalline graphite surface and DLC substrate is demonstrated by AFM. What’s more, the temperature dependence of friction between single crystalline graphite and DLC is measured by micro-force sensor mounted on micro-manipulator. The results show that heating helps to significantly decrease the friction. Desorption of contaminants along the interface is speculated to be the key mechanism for temperature dependence of friction. This work provides the concept of large-scale superlubricity relevant in HDD applications, which could be a promising technology to ultimately reduce HMS for future HDI development.


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