A STUDY OF HEAD-DISK INTERACTION DETECTION IN THE HARD-DISK DRIVES

The reliability and performance of precision mechanical components that experience sliding under contact depend heavily on the friction and wear characteristics at the sliding interface. In order to improve the reliability of the sliding interface, there is a need to predict, measure and monitor any physical interactions at the head-disk interface (HDI). In the present work, the basic tribological characteristics of HDI were analyzed. The HDI during start-stop and constant speed operation using acoustic emission (AE) were studied. The Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) analysis of the AE signal was used to understand the interaction between the AE signal and the state of contact. In addition, we developed laser textured (LT) disk and the contact start-stop (CSS) tests were performed to investigate the effect of dimples on the stiction performance of the HDI. Furthermore, numerical analysis between the slider and disk surface pressure were performed using the boundary coordinate system and divergence formulation for the nonlinear Reynold's equation solution.