Claims
- 1. A disc drive comprising:
at least one disc rotationally supported relative to a chassis; a head including a slider having at least one raised bearing surface and at least one bearing surface and supported relative to the at least one disc and the at least one raised bearing surface including at least one contact pad extending therefrom and formed of a tribological material to provide intermittent contact protection and having a lower pad height dimension than a landing pad to limit interference at ultra-low fly heights; and a load/unload ramp to support the head above a surface of the at least one disc surface for non-operational periods.
- 2. The disc drive of claim 1 and further including a plurality of dispersed contact pads to provide intermittent contact protection.
- 3 The disc drive of claim 1 wherein the tribological material is diamond like carbon material.
- 4. The disc drive of claim 1 wherein the pad height dimension of the at least one contact pad above the at least one raised bearing surface is about 100 Angstroms or less.
- 5. The disc drive of claim 2 wherein the at least one raised bearing surface includes raised side rails and a raised center pad and the plurality of contact pads are dispersed on the raised side rails and the raised center pad.
- 6. The disc drive of claim 2 wherein the plurality of contact pads are dispersed over an entire surface of the at least one raised bearing surfaces.
- 7. The disc drive of claim 5 wherein the plurality of contact pads are dispersed over an entire surface of the raised side rails and the raised center pad.
- 8. The disc drive of claim 2 wherein the plurality of contact pads are dispersed over a leading edge portion of the at least one raised bearing surface.
- 9. The disc drive of claim 5 wherein the plurality of contact pads are dispersed on a leading edge portion of the raised side rails and the raised center pad.
- 10. The disc drive of claim 1 wherein the slider supports a transducer element comprising one of an inductive transducer, magneto-resistive transducer or a magneto-optical transducer.
- 11. A head comprising;
a slider including a leading edge, a trailing edge, and at least one raised bearing surface between the leading edge and the trailing edge; and contact protection means for intermittent head-disc contact protection for ultra-low slider fly heights.
- 12. The head of claim 11 wherein the contact protection means includes a plurality of contact pads having a pad height dimension of about 100 Angstroms or less.
- 13. The head of claim 11 wherein the contact protection means includes a plurality of contact pads dispersed on the at least one raised bearing surface of the slider.
- 14. A combination comprising:
a slider including a leading edge, a trailing edge and at least one raised bearing surface; and contact pads on the at least one raised bearing surface having a smaller pad height dimension than landing pads for contact starts and stops to provide intermittent contact protection at low fly-heights.
- 15. The combination of claim 14 wherein the pad height dimension is about 100 Angstroms or less for ultra-low flyability.
- 16. The combination of claim 14 and comprising;
a load/unload ramp adapted to support the slider during non-operational periods and configured to release the slider for operation.
- 17. The combination of claim 14 wherein the contact pads are formed of a diamond like-carbon.
- 18. The combination of claim 14 wherein the contact pads are dispersed on an entire surface of the at least one raised bearing surface.
- 19. The combination of claim 14 wherein the at least one raised bearing surface includes raised rails and a raised center pad and the contact pads are dispersed on an entire surface of the raised rails and the raised center pad.
- 20. The combination of claim 14 wherein the contact pads are dispersed on a trailing edge portion of the at least one raised bearing surface.
- 21. The combination of claim 14 wherein the at least one raised bearing surface includes raised rails and a raised center pad and the contact pads are dispersed on a leading edge surface portion of the raised rails and the raised center pad.
- 22. A method for operating a disc drive comprising:
providing a head suspension assembly including a head; rotating a disc to provide an air flow along an air bearing surface of the head to support the head at a relatively low fly height above a surface of the disc; and intermittently contacting the disc surface during operation at tribological contact pads extending from the air bearing surface of the head.
- 23. The method of claim 22 and further comprising:
unloading the head suspension assembly from a load/unload ramp for spin-up.
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION
[0001] This application claims priority to Provisional Application Ser. No. 60/218,268 filed Jul. 13, 2000 and entitled “DIAMOND-LIKE CARBON PADS FOR FLYABILITY AT ULTRA-LOW FLY HEIGHTS”.
Provisional Applications (1)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
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60218268 |
Jul 2000 |
US |