Leading surface slider microactuator

A disc drive comprising:

• a rotatable recording disc containing a plurality of concentric recording tracks;
• an actuator assembly comprising an actuator arm, a flexure supported by the actuator arm and a slider supported by the flexure, the slider having an air-bearing surface generally parallel to and confronting a surface of the disc and the flexure having a tab with a surface generally normal to the surface of the disc, and the slider having
• a leading surface generally normal to the air-bearing surface;
• a trailing surface generally normal to the air-bearing surface opposite the leading surface;
• a transducing head at the trailing surface for writing and/or reading data to and/or from the plurality of concentric recording tracks on the recording disc, and
• a microactuator between the leading surface of the slider and the tab;
• and
• a motor operatively connected to the actuator arm and operable to move the actuator assembly relative to the recording disc to coarsely position the transducing head relative to a selected one of the plurality of concentric recording tracks on the disc;
• the microactuator being operable to apply force to the tab rotate the slider and displace the transducing head relative to the flexure to finely position the transducing head relative to the selected track on the disc.

A process for manufacturing a slider for attachment to a flexure on an actuator arm assembly of a disc drive, the flexure having a tab with a surface generally normal to a surface of a disc, the process comprising:

• providing a slider body having an air-bearing surface for confronting the surface of the disc, a leading surface normal to the air-bearing surface and a trailing surface normal to the air-bearing surface opposite the leading surface;
• forming a transducing head on the trailing surface of the slider body by thin film deposition;
• forming a microactuator on the leading surface of the slider body, the microactuator comprising a stack containing a plurality of thin film selectively polarized piezoelectric layers interdigitated with a plurality of conductive teeth layers, a first end layer of the stack being operatively supported by the leading surface of the slider body and a second end layer of the stack opposite the first end layer being operatively mounted to the surface of the tab to apply force to the surface of the tab to rotate the slider body and displace the transducing head with respect to tracks of a disc;
• and
• forming at least two conductive pads on the slider body, one of the conductive pads being electrically connected to a first group of alternate ones of the plurality of conductive teeth layers and the other of the conductive pads being electrically connected to a second group of alternate ones of the plurality of conductive teeth layers.