The effect of air bearing contour design on thermal pole-tip protrusion

Thermal flying height control has recently been implemented in magnetic recording disk drives to reduce the flying height at the read/write element of magnetic recording sliders. This paper investigates the effect of air bearing contour design on thermal pole-tip protrusion and flying characteristics of magnetic recording sliders. A number of air bearing surface designs are examined to study the relationship between air bearing surface design and efficiency of thermal pole-tip protrusion.