Apparatus and method for detecting air contamination in fluid dynamic bearings

Abstract

Embodiments of the invention generally provide a method for detecting air contamination within a fluid dynamic bearing used with a disc drive. In one embodiment, the invention provides a method to determine the amount of air contamination with hydrodynamic fluid by comparing the differential displacement of the fluid dynamic bearing between vacuum and non-vacuum conditions. In another aspect, the invention provides an air-contamination detecting apparatus adapted to detect air contamination within the fluid of a fluid dynamic bearing. In another aspect, the invention provides a method to determine air contamination within fluid dynamic bearings using the change in fly height of one or more probes disposed above the surface of a rotating surface of the disc drive.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.