ABS design with soft bumper pads (SBP) for mitigating media damage and thermal erasure in hard disk drives (HDD)

A method to fabricate a slider for a hard-disk drive (HDD) comprising:

• providing a rowbar configured to provide a multiplicity of identical slider bodies, each body having a smooth, planar surface of rectangular horizontal cross-section;
• then applying a subtractive process, forming an identical aerodynamically stable patterned air bearing surface (ABS) on each of said slider bodies by etching a topography into each said slider body through said smooth, planar surface by using a first patterned photomask and a corresponding succession of ion-milling (IM) and/or reactive ion etching (RIE) steps to transfer said ABS pattern to all potential sliders in said rowbar and, thereafter, removing said first photomask;
• wherein said patterned ABS includes horizontally rounded bumper pedestals formed proximally to each corner of said ABS;
• then, using a second patterned photomask of appropriate pattern, applying an identical additive vacuum lift-off process to each said patterned ABS bumper pedestal wherein said bumper pedestals are further modified by a deposition of soft bumper pads (SBP) by means of a material deposition thereon;
• wherein
• using said vacuum lift-off process, said SBP are formed either as a layer of dense, low-stress Si having a thickness between approximately 50-300 angstroms or as a laminated sequence of alternating layers including layers of dense, low-stress Si of thickness between approximately 50-300 angstroms alternating with layers of diamond like carbon (DLC), on said bumper pad pedestals;
• then
• lifting off said patterned photomask and subdividing said rowbar into individual sliders.