Optimum Design of Thrust Air Bearing for Hard Disk Drive Spindle Motor

Abstract The aim of this paper is to develop the general methodology for the optimum design of magnetic head slider for improving the spacing characteristics between head slider and disk surfaces under the static and dynamic operation conditions of hard disk drive and to present an application of the methodology to IBM 3380-type slider design. In the optimum design, the objective function is defined as the weighted sum of minimum spacing, maximum difference of spacing due to variation of radial location of head and maximum amplitude ratio of slider motion. Slider rail width, taper length, taper angle, suspension position and preload are selected as the design variables. Before the optimization of magnetic head slider, the effects of these five design variables on the objective function are examined by the parametric study, and then the optimum design variables are determined by applying the hybrid optimization technique combining the direct search method and the successive quadratic programming (SQP). From the results obtained, the effectiveness of optimum design on the spacing characteristics of magnetic head slider is clarified.

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HDI-09 APPLICATION OF SQP METHOD IN DESIGNING THRUST AIR BEARING FOR HARD DISK DRIVE SPINDLE MOTOR(Head/Disk Interface and Tribology III,Technical Program of Oral Presentations)

Proceedings of JSME-IIP/ASME-ISPS Joint Conference on Micromechatronics for Information and Precision Equipment IIP/ISPS joint MIPE ◽

10.1299/jsmemipe.2009.117 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 2009 (0) ◽

pp. 117-118

Author(s):

M. D. IBRAHIM ◽

Tadashi NAMBA ◽

Masayuki OCHIAI ◽

Hiromu HASHIMOTO

Keyword(s):

Hard Disk Drive ◽

Disk Drive ◽

Spindle Motor ◽

Air Bearing ◽

Head Disk Interface ◽

Technical Program ◽

Sqp Method ◽

Disk Interface ◽

Oral Presentations ◽

Motor Head

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

Magnetic Storage Symposium: Frontiers of Magnetic Hard Disk Drive Tribology and Technology ◽

10.1115/2003-trib-342 ◽

2003 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Eric M. Jayson ◽

Frank E. Talke

Keyword(s):

Hard Disk Drive ◽

Hard Disk Drives ◽

Hard Disk ◽

Disk Drive ◽

Element Model ◽

Time Dependent ◽

Air Bearing ◽

Disk Interface ◽

Shock Response ◽

Shock Event

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.

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