Lubricant transfer and slider-lubricant interaction at ultra-low flying height

With the decrease in slider flying height, slider-lubricant-disk interaction is becoming increasingly important for the ultra-low flying height head-disk interface because the interaction results in potential slider flying stability problems. In this study, a method to study slider-lubricant interaction quantitatively is developed. The relative amount of lubricant transferred by a slider from a lubed disk surface can be determined. The parameters of slider air bearing surface (ABS) related to the lubricant transfer and the slider-lubricant interaction are identified. It is an effective strategy to minimize the lubricant transfer and the slider-lubricant interaction by reducing the slider effective length and width, which are directly related to the size of slider trailing edge pads.