Miniaturised friction force measuring system for tribological research on magnetic storage devices

In this paper a silicon head slider suspension with integrated piezoresistive friction force sensors is presented. This device can be used for tribological research on magnetic rigid disk storage devices. Both the tangential and radial friction forces between the slider and disk, as well as a friction induced moment, can be measured simultaneously. Furthermore the normal load on the head slider can be measured. The paper focusses on design considerations and the realisation process of the suspension. Friction measurements are included to illustrate the feasibility of the system

Output characteristics of a thin-film piezoelectric AE sensor for magnetic head-disk interaction

A new type of acoustic emission (AE) sensor was developed for detecting head-disk interaction in magnetic disk devices. In order to develop a small sensor, we used a thin-film piezoelectric material and mounted it on the Si slider using micromachining techniques. We conducted a basic experiment and a simulation of sensor output, and confirmed that the simulation used here can predict sensor output characteristics. This paper describes the structure of the sensor and the method of simulation. We also performed several other simulations of sensor output characteristics using this method, and confirmed that the new sensor is applicable to tribological research on head-disk interaction