| The slider is the mechanical device which
retains the read/write head, conducts the wiring from the head
to the drive through a suspension and determines the physical
spacing and flying characteristics or head to disk spacing.
The modern slider is sliced from a wafer containing the head
elements which are created via a semiconductor-like process.
The exact slider dimensions and surface facing the disk (i.e.
the air bearing surface or ABS) precisely determine these mechanical
properties as well as the number of sliders per wafer.
Slider size and mass have evolved with time based on requirement
to reduce the overall mass of the slider/suspension assembly.
This reduction improves both shock resistance of the drive
as well as the time response of the actuator, helping to reduce
seek and access times. Reducing slider size also improves
response to disk surface waviness allowing better flying height
control and also offering the opportunity of lower flying
heights, required as areal density increases. Hitachi GST
has pioneered the introduction of femto sliders, the smallest
slider in production to date, in the latest Travelstar 7K60
2.5 inch disk drive for the notebook and desktop computer
market. This new 2003 femto slider is only 20% of the dimensions
of the 1975 Mini ferrite slider and 1% of its mass. In addition,
the narrow femto slider width allows data to be written in
close proximity to the disk edge while still maintaining the
specified flying height, resulting in as much as a 3% increase
in 65 mm disk capacity. It is expected that the disk drive
industry will follow Hitachi GST's lead in the introduction
of femto sliders. |
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