Contact Detection and Evaluation of the Dynamic Characteristics of a Flying Head Slider for Magnetic Disk Storage using a Piezoelectric Transducer.

Signal output from a piezoelectric transducer bonded to a flying head slider for magnetic disk storage is analyzed. Slider-core natural vibrations induced by contacts between the slider and the recording medium are identified with frequency peaks of the signal output. The analyses are applied to highly sensitive contact detection and evaluation of dynamic characteristics of a slider on an actual recording medium. The influence of the medium surface roughness on the dynamic behavior of the slider is presented for both the full flying state and the contact start/stop operation.