Air-bearing design and flying characteristics of flexible optical head slider combined with visible laser light guide

 We propose a novel optical head slider for near-field recording. An air-bearing pad pattern is formed on the apex of a cantilever-like polymeric waveguide so that, by using the cantilever itself as the slider suspension, a single body structure incorporates the functions of the flying slider, suspension, and waveguide. This structure (a flexible optical head slider) can be fabricated using a method similar to a lithographical technique. This structure can be expected to provide several great advantages in miniaturizing head assemblies, in simplifying the assembly and optical trimming processes, and in producing a lighter head to thus allow a wider tracking bandwidth. In this paper, we first discuss the air-bearing design of the flexible optical head slider, and then propose two possible designs. We also report the results of an experimental evaluation of the static and dynamic floating characteristics of prototypes.