This paper reviews the state of the head-disk interface (HDI) technology, and more particularly the head-medium spacing (HMS), for today's and future hard-disk drives. Current storage areal density on a disk surface is fast approaching the one terabit per square inch mark, although the compound annual growth rate has reduced considerably from ∼100%/annum in the late 1990s to 20-30% today. This rate is now lower than the historical, Moore's law equivalent of ∼40%/annum. A necessary enabler to a high areal density is the HMS, or the distance from the bottom of the read sensor on the flying head to the top of the magnetic medium on the rotating disk. This paper describes the various components of the HMS and various scenarios and challenges on how to achieve a goal of 4.0-4.5 nm for the 4 Tbit/in 2 density point. Special considerations will also be given to the implication of disruptive technologies such as sealing the drive in an inert atmosphere and novel recording schemes such as bit patterned media and heat assisted magnetic recording.
The continuous reduction of head–disk spacing has made the use of supersmooth media a necessity in gaining ultrahigh magnetic recording areal density. To overcome the stiction barrier associated with supersmooth disks without compromising the head flyability requirement, texture features can be transferred from the disk surface to the slider surface, creating a new type of head–disk interface, the padded slider interface. The tribology of a padded slider interface is in many ways different from that of the traditional head–disk interface with texture on the disk only. In this article, various unique tribological aspects of the padded slider interface are discussed in detail. Both theoretical modeling results and experimental data are presented to elucidate the stiction, friction, and wear behaviors of this novel head–disk interface. It is shown that the padded slider technology offers a viable alternative to the ramp load technology as a head–disk interface solution for the ultrahigh areal density.
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