Fabrication and experimental study of Al₂O₃-TiC sliders with piezoelectric nanoactuators for flying height control

A gap flying height (FH) of less than 5 nm between the read/write element and the surface of the disk is required for ultrahigh density recording. A stable and constant FH must also be sustained in the presence of altitude and temperature changes and manufacturing tolerance. A FH adjustment or controlled slider that is capable of adjusting its gap FH has been proposed previously. In this paper we demonstrate an inexpensive and low-temperature approach for integrating piezoelectric materials in the fabrication of current small form-factor Al₂O₃-TiC sliders. A bulk PZT sheet is bonded onto the back of row-bars and the sliders are separated by a standard dicing process. It requires no deep reactive-ion etching (DRIE) or high temperature processes and is suitable for mass production. A conventional design and a new special air bearing surface (ABS) design have been fabricated and tested by an optical profiler and a FH tester. A nonflying actuation stroke of 0.6–0.8 nm/V has been observed. The FH measurements showed that the ABS plays a key role in increasing the actuation efficiency, which also agrees well with the numerical analysis.