Friction Control of Active-Head Slider During Flying Height Adjustment

To reduce the risk of head crash when a slider contacts a smooth disk during flying height adjustment, a novel tapping method for reducing the friction and lowering the risk of head crash was developed. An active-head slider was designed and fabricated to demonstrate the usefulness of the tapping approach. It is also found that micro-vibration is significantly effective in avoiding a high friction force and protecting a head from the crash due to head-disk contact during the flying height adjustment.