Integrating control of slider bias potential, touch-down detection and fly-height determination in a HDD

A read/write integrated circuit (IC) for a hard disk drive (HDD), wherein said read/write IC comprises:

• a slider signal controller configured to control bias signal of a slider with respect to a media potential;
• a real-time media-disk fly-height and contact detector configured to detect one or more of temperature generated by real-time media-disk slider spacing and real-time media-disk contact;
• and
• a real-time relative fly-height determiner configured to detect real-time relative fly-height of said slider based on analysis of a modulated portion of a high-frequency signal coupled to an element of said slider.

A method for integrating control of slider bias potential, touch-down detection and fly-height determination in a hard disk drive (HDD), said method comprising:

• controlling slider bias potential with respect to a media potential;
• detecting one or more of media-disk fly-height and contact in real-time based one or more of temperature generated by a real-time media-disk slider spacing and real-time media-disk contact;
• and
• determining fly-height of said slider in real-time based on a high-frequency signal coupled to an element of a slider, wherein said controlling slider bias potential, said detecting one or more of media-disk fly-height and contact, and said determining fly-height of said slider occur substantially simultaneously, wherein determining fly-height comprises:
• injecting a modulating signal into said slider to induce a sideband modulation of an auxiliary RF signal.