Effect of mechanical design of the suspension on dynamic loading process

Abstract

In designing a load/unload system utilized in hard disk drives, necessary care needs to be taken to ensure that the slider does not damage the disk surface during loading and unloading processes. However, a small deviation in the design point of the preload between the load-dome and flexure can lead to undesirable loading processes resulting in an adverse number of slider/disk contacts. In this study, we show that if the preload between the load-dome and flexure is too low, the slider can oscillate causing the corners of the slider to contact the disk multiple times even though the slider is a few microns away from the disk. In addition, the slider can be sucked down towards the disk resulting in a complete separation of the load-dome from the flexure assembly leading to uncontrolled loading conditions. This separation occurs while the suspension is still on the ramp, and thus no preload is exerted on the slider immediately following the separation. Consequently, the slider flies at a flying height higher than the design point until the gap between the load-dome and flexure closes. Hence, the suspension must be carefully designed to suppress slider oscillation and to ensure that the loaddome does not separate during the loading process.