Quantitative study of lubricant puddling at the head/disk interface

Abstract

 This paper presents a new methodology to quantify the micro-level lubricant accumulation (lubricant puddling) on a magnetic recording hard disk for flyability testing. After flying over the disk for certain period of time, the head was parked on the disk for certain time duration to allow the lubricant picked up on the head to flow to the disk surface. Using the optical surface analyzer with proper calibration and background removal, the volume of lubricant in a lubricant puddle on the disk has been measured accurately. The effect of various factors, including lubricant type, thickness, the way of head parking, and head parking duration, on lubricant puddling has been investigated. This method is a useful tool for flyability study and other studies that need to quantify the volume of localized lubricant accumulation on the disk.