Optimal Design of Slider Air-Bearing for Discrete Track Recording Technology

This paper suggests a design methodology for slider air bearings over a discrete track recording (DTR) disk using a simplified static analysis including the flying-height (FH) loss equation instead of a computationally expensive, time consuming transient dynamic analysis. Because a slider over a DTR disk has different flying characteristics than a slider over a continuous track recording (CTR) disk, the design of the slider requires modification. However, it is challenging to dynamically simulate slider air bearings over a DTR disk. Furthermore, it is nearly impossible to design the slider using an expensive dynamic analysis as a solver. Therefore, we define the flying characteristics of the DTR slider as a function of that of the CTR slider by using the FH loss equation based on averaged flow effect. A design optimization problem is formulated to meet the design requirements of the DTR slider, which include target FH, FH flatness, altitude FH drop, pitch and roll angle ranges, and altitude pitch drop. The design problem is changed to an inverse problem using a conventional static analysis for a CTR disk instead of an expensive dynamic analysis for a DTR disk. Simulation results showed that the optimally designed DTR slider can meet the target FH while satisfying all design requirements over the entire recording band.