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To sustain an ultra-low and stable flying height (FH) is crucial for achieving high areal densities in magnetic recording. Recently, a new method called thermal flying height control (TFC) has been introduced to the latest generations of disk drives for precise control of slider-disk spacing. It is noted that the TFC technique is able to eliminate almost all static FH loss, but is unable to circumvent dynamic FH loss such as flying height modulation (FHM) due to disk waviness. It is therefore advantageous to have both high thermal actuation efficiency and low FHM due to disk waviness characteristics in a TFC slider design. This paper investigates the effects of air bearings on the thermal actuation efficiency and the capability in following disk waviness of the TFC sliders. Air bearing surface (ABS) design strategies for TFC slider are proposed and investigated with simulations. The results show that both excellent thermal actuation efficiency and strong capability in following disk waviness can be achieved through proper arrangements of air bearing pressure distribution on the ABS of TFC sliders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To achieve stable flying height of a pickup head in near-field optical disk drives, the influence of disk grooves on the airflow of an air bearing deserves investigation, since at a very low flying height, groove geometry is comparable to the flying height. This paper aims to compare air bearing airflows between near-field optical disks with grooved surface and conventional disks without grooved surface. Computational results show that grooved disks generate smaller pressure than S both disks since grooves can accommodate air molecules and tune air pressure. Flying higher makes pressure magnitudes closer between grooved disks and smooth disks in negative pressure area On slider bottoms. Further, track pitches and groove depths essentially do not affect pressure at rails. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]