Slider Dynamics Over a Discrete Track Medium With Servo Patterns Available to Purchase

The dynamic characteristics of a slider flying over various servo patterns on a disk surface were investigated. The investigation shows that the air-flow field is disturbed and causes flying modulation during the transition from grooved longitudinal discrete tracks to a transversal and near-random pattern in the servo field. The effects of the parameters that define the servo pattern — including land area ratio of burst patterns, groove depth, servo-pattern frequency, and the lengths of synchronization (sync), servo address mark (SAM), postamble (PAD) blocks, and burst pattern type — on the flying height responses were evaluated. The evaluation results indicate that the flying-height modulation depends on servo-pattern frequency, burst land-area ratio, groove depth, and the lengths of the sync, SAM, and PAD block and burst pattern type. Modulation of a slider flying over a servo pattern therefore can be reduced by optimizing the servo-pattern design from the viewpoint of these parameters.