Active head slider having piezoelectric and thermal actuators
AssigneeHitachi Asia Ltd.
InventorsHui Li, Kensuke Amemiya
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An active head slider for a use in a Hard Disk drive having first and second actuators. The first actuator deforming a portion of a slider body that includes a read/write head to reduce the flying height of the portion over a disk. The second actuator forming a protrusion in a bottom surface of the slider body that includes an end of the read/write head to further reduce the flying height of the read/write head. Preferably, the first actuator is a piezoelectric actuator and the second actuator is one or more thermo actuators.
Claims32
An active-head slider for a hard disk drive, said slider comprising:
- a slider body having a top surface, a bottom surface, a leading surface, a trailing surface, a first side, and a second side;
- a head for reading and writing data formed in a portion of said slider body proximate to said trailing surface of said slider body;
- a first actuator element that controls deformation of said portion of said slider body proximate to said trailing surface that includes said head to reduce a flying height of said portion including said head over a disk rotating in said hard disk drive;
- and
- a second actuator element that causes a protrusion from said bottom surface of said slider body that includes an end of said head to reduce said flying height of said head over said disk.
A method of operating an active head slider of a disk drive, wherein said slider has a slider body with a top surface, a bottom surface, a leading surface, a trailing surface, a first side, and a second side;
- a head for reading and writing data formed proximate to in a portion of said slider body proximate to said trailing surface of said slider body, said method comprising:
- deforming said portion of said slider body including said head to reduce a flying height of said portion over a disk;
- and
- forming a protrusion from said bottom surface of said portion including an end of said head to reduce the flying height of said head over said disk.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.