Sensitivity analysis of pico and femto sliders

The flying height sensitivity of pico and femto sliders on air bearing contour design, operating conditions and manufacturing tolerances was studied numerically. A Monte Carlo analysis was performed to evaluate the distribution of flying height, pitch angle and roll angle, assuming the selected independent variables have normal distributions. Two types of pico sliders and one type of femto sliders were modeled and simulated. The results show that flying height is strongly influenced by the contour design of the air bearing slider. The resulting distributions of flying height, pitch angle and roll angle are near Gaussian. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.