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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]