JP2000040320A - Floating magnetic head slider - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a floating magnetic head slider having wear resistance and capable of preventing the occurrence of a stiction phenomenon in CSS (contact start stop). SOLUTION: In each of the sliding surfaces 2a and 2b of a magnetic head slider, a very hard protective film 3 made of ZrO2-Y2O3 is formed to have a thickness of 100 to 500 Å (preferably, 175 to 225 Å). Since the protective film 3 is thick having a thickness of 100 Å or higher, wear resistance is improved by a corresponding amount. Since the very hard protective film 3 made of ZrO2-Y2O3 is formed to have a thickness of 100 to 500 Å, the surface roughness (rugged surface) of the sliding surface is maintained and thus advantageous for preventing a stiction phenomenon (the occurrence of a stiction phenomenon is suppressed).

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a floating type magnetic head slider which has improved abrasion resistance without affecting the characteristics of a magnetic head and prevents the occurrence of a stiction phenomenon.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As a floating magnetic head for a hard disk drive, a contact / start / stop method is often used at present because of its simple structure and low cost. In the contact / start / stop method, when the disk is rotating at a high speed, the magnetic head is lifted from the disk surface with a gap of about 0.1 to 0.3 μm, and when the rotation of the disk is stopped, the magnetic head is lifted. The stopped state is maintained by pressing the sliding surface against the disk surface (hereinafter referred to as CSS). Therefore, when starting and stopping the disk, a large frictional force is generated between the disk and the magnetic head. It is generally desired that the coefficient of friction at this time be 1 or less.

[0003] Wear resistance of the interface between the conventional magnetic head and the disk
The countermeasure is to use SiO _Two Or grapher
When a hard film is formed on a light-
In most cases, and hardly
Actually, no measures have been taken against wear. Slider
Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 61-61163
On the surface of the slider as disclosed in
With carbon-based protective film, or Japanese Patent Publication No. 2-276074
In the official gazette, the surface of the slider is made uneven to reduce the coefficient of friction.
Are disclosed.

[0004]

In the above conventional example,
First, the hardness of a magnetic head that has not been subjected to wear resistance is lower than the hardness of a disk that has been subjected to wear resistance. As described above, when the hardness difference between the two is remarkable, there is a problem that a magnetic head having a low hardness is shaved by the disk surface to generate abrasive grains, so that a friction coefficient is increased, and a head crash is more likely to occur. Even if the friction area is reduced by providing an uneven surface, if there is a remarkable difference between the hardness of the disk surface and the hardness of the uneven surface, there is a problem similar to the case of graphite.

[0005] Next, the sliding surface of a slider using ferrite or calcium has the following problems. That is, the tendency of magnetic heads is to increase the recording density, lower the flying height of the head, and adopt a metal-based sputter disk. As a result, the wear resistance of the sliding surface of the slider has been increasingly required. Therefore, when we experimented on sliders made of ferrite or calcium, when the number of CSSs was several thousand to tens of thousands, the friction coefficient became 1 or more, which scratched the disk surface and caused a head crash, resulting in the reliability as a drive. It was confirmed that there was a problem in this respect.

In order to reduce the coefficient of friction between the sliding surface of the slider and the disk, it is conceivable that both surfaces are mirror-finished. In the contact / start and stop systems, a magnetic surface is formed on the disk surface. Since the head is stopped by pressing the head, when the stop time is prolonged, a so-called stiction phenomenon occurs, in which the flexure supporting the magnetic head is deformed when the drive is started, or the disk surface is damaged. There is a problem of attaching.

In order to prevent the above stiction phenomenon, there is currently a so-called head loading mechanism that lifts the magnetic head from the disk when the drive is stopped. However, this head loading mechanism has a complicated structure and However, there is a problem that it is expensive. Recently, small-diameter hard disk drives have been mounted on laptop computers. In this case, unlike conventional desktop machines, the magnetic head may be used under more severe mechanical conditions, and when data is not being accessed from the viewpoint of power saving, the disk may be used. The fact is that the number of CSSs tends to increase due to the adoption of the so-called sleep mode in which the rotation of the CSS is stopped.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and has abrasion resistance enough to be used under severe conditions such as a laptop computer, and has a stiction phenomenon with respect to CSS. The object of the present invention is to provide a floating magnetic head slider that does not generate any magnetic field.

[0009]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides a contact /
In a start / stop type floating magnetic head,
ZrO ₂ -Y is applied to the sliding surface of the slider of the floating magnetic head.
_A high-hardness protective film made of a ₂ O ₃ system is formed to have a thickness of 100 to 500 Å, preferably 175 to 225 Å.

[0010]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention a protective layer of high hardness made of a system of ZrO ₂ -Y ₂ O ₃ on the sliding surface of the slider of the floating magnetic head 1
Formed with a thickness of 00 to 500 Angstroms, and conducted CSS experiments. As a result, it has excellent wear resistance. The film thickness has little effect on the flying height of the magnetic head and the electromagnetic conversion characteristics of the magnetic head, and the stiction phenomenon occurs. It has been confirmed that a floating magnetic head slider can be obtained.

[0011]

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG.
Explanation will be given based on the plane. FIGS. 1 to 3 show various magnetic heads.
Indicates In this magnetic head 1, 2a, 2b, and 2c slide.
The sliding surface 2a, 2b, 2c is covered with a protective film 3 (shaded area).
Min) to perform the experiment. The specifications of the experiment are as follows
is there. First, the surface roughness of the sliding surfaces 2a, 2b, 2c is 100 to
 Those having a thickness of 500 angstroms were used. As a raw material for membranes
T SiO_Two , ZrO_Two -Y_Two O _Three And MgO-SiO
_Two Using high purity of each raw material
A film was formed. This film is formed by known sputtering (vacuum formation).
Membrane technology). And the thickness of the film is the sliding surface 2a,
2b, 2c surface roughness of 100 to 500 angstroms
Performed within the range of In this case, the surface roughness of the sliding surface is
Since the sliding surface does not change later,
It is confirmed that advantageous surface roughness is maintained after film formation
Was done. As a condition of CSS, as shown in FIG.
Head weight 6.5 g, phase between magnetic head and disk
9 meters per second for speed, when the disk starts to rotate
8 seconds, constant speed rotation time 2 seconds, rotation fall time 8 seconds,
The stop time is 2 seconds.

FIG. 5 shows the experimental results. The experimental results shown in FIG. 5 show the effect of the coefficient of static friction on the number of CSSs when the thickness of the film was changed from zero to 230 angstroms and 450 angstroms using SiO ₂ as the raw material of the film. Show. As is clear from FIG. 5, it can be seen that the rate of increase in the coefficient of static friction decreases as the thickness of the film increases with respect to the number of CSSs. This confirms that SiO ₂ has excellent wear resistance with respect to CSS, and that the thicker the film, the better the wear resistance.

Next, an experiment was conducted on the characteristics of the magnetic head as shown in FIG. The experimental results shown here are for SiO ₂
Are compared with those having a film thickness of zero and 225 angstroms. First, with regard to the flying height of the magnetic head, the effective flying height of the formed film is increased by the thickness. Here, the effective flying height is a distance from the surface of the disk to the base surface of the slider, and is a value that actually affects the electromagnetic conversion characteristics. Next, regarding the electromagnetic conversion characteristics of the magnetic head, the output and overwrite (new data while erasing previously written data are erased) are obtained with the film.
It is observed that both the characteristics and the characteristics of writing data slightly decrease, but such a decrease does not cause any practical problem.

Next, an experiment was performed on stiction.
Was. This experiment was carried out in FIG. _Two Has a thickness of 230 mm
And 450 Angstrom
Then, leave the magnetic head on the surface of the disk for 24 hours,
At the start of rotation shown in Fig. 4 before and after standing
Was measured. As a result, before and after leaving
The above-mentioned coefficient of friction hardly changes afterwards
Was. This experiment showed that SiO_Two Of the above thickness
This means that the uneven surface of the slider sliding surface is maintained
Taste and SiO_Two Is valid for stiction
It means there is.

Next, the actual observation in the experiment shown in FIG. 5 was as follows. First, with respect to the magnetic head without the SiO ₂ film, it was observed that the coefficient of friction became 1 or more when CSS was 20,000 times and scratches were generated on the surfaces of the disk and the slider. In addition, the one with a thickness of 230 Å has a CSS of 20,000 times and a coefficient of friction of 0.25,
In the case of 450 angstroms, the value was 0.2 or less, and no scratch was observed on the disk or slider surface. Almost the same results were obtained for the films of ZrO ₂ —Y ₂ O ₃ and MgO—SiO ₂ .

The above experimental results can be summarized as follows.
It can be said that iO ₂ has stable film formation and excellent abrasion resistance. In addition, since it is excellent in abrasion resistance and does not cause a stiction phenomenon, it is suitable as a wear-resistant protective film for a floating magnetic head slider of a laptop computer used under severe conditions. Can be. Next, since the film thickness affects the flying height of the magnetic head and thus the electromagnetic conversion characteristics, an appropriate film thickness exists.

That is, as shown in FIG. 6, the thinner the film, the better from the viewpoint of lower flying height of the magnetic head and the characteristics of recording and reproduction signals. On the other hand, as shown in FIG. The thicker the film, the better. As a result of the experiment, in consideration of these two factors, it is appropriate that the film thickness is around 200 angstroms and around 25 angstroms (that is, 175 to 225 angstroms).

Although the above description has been made with respect to SiO ₂ as a film-forming material, similar experiments were performed on ZrO ₂ —Y ₂ O ₃ and MgO—SiO ₂ , and almost the same results were obtained.
As the present embodiment, FIGS. 1 to 3 show the case where the high hardness protective film 3 is applied to the entire sliding surface.
Experiments have also confirmed that the same result can be obtained even when a high hardness protective film is partially applied to the sliding surface. Further, by manufacturing the gap of the magnetic head with the same material, the cost of the magnetic head can be reduced.

[0019]

As described above in detail, according to the present invention, ZrO ₂ -Y ₂ O _{3 is provided on} the sliding surface of the slider of the floating magnetic head.
A high-hardness protective film consisting of the above-mentioned system is formed with a thickness of 100 to 500 Å, and this protective film is thinner than 500 Å, which improves the electromagnetic conversion characteristics such as output and overwrite characteristics. Can be achieved. In addition, ZrO ₂ —Y ₂ O
_A high hardness protective film made of the system ₃ is formed with a thickness of 100 to 500 angstroms, and the thickness is increased to 100 angstroms or more, so that the wear resistance can be improved accordingly. Further, by improving the wear resistance in this way, it is possible to use the magnetic head under severe conditions, so that the floating magnetic head of the present invention can be easily applied to a laptop computer. Further, a high hardness protective film made of a ZrO ₂ —Y ₂ O ₃ system is coated on the sliding surface of the slider.
Since it is formed to have a thickness of about 500 Å, the surface roughness (uneven surface) of the sliding surface is maintained, which is advantageous for the stiction phenomenon (the generation of the stiction phenomenon can be suppressed). In this case, by setting the protective film to 175 to 225 angstroms, the stiction phenomenon can be further suppressed, and the protective film is reduced to 225 angstroms or less, and the protective film is further thinned. And the protective film is 175
Angstrom or more, the wear resistance can be further improved.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing a perspective view of a composite type magnetic head.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing an MTC type magnetic head in a perspective view.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing a monolithic type magnetic head in a perspective view.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing CSS conditions used in experiments of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a table showing an embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Magnetic head 2a, 2b, 2c Sliding surface 3 High hardness protective film

Claims (1)

[Claims] In a floating magnetic head of a contact / start / stop type, a high-hardness protective film made of a ZrO ₂ —Y ₂ O ₃ system is formed on a sliding surface of a slider of the floating magnetic head. A floating magnetic head slider formed to have a thickness of about 500 Å, preferably 175 to 225 Å.