Protective shields under touchdown conditions for thermally assisted perpendicular magnetic recording

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11211084-B1
Application number	US-202017072302-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Oct 16, 2020
Priority date	Oct 16, 2020
Publication date	Dec 28, 2021
Grant date	Dec 28, 2021

Abstract

A Perpendicular Magnetic Recording (PMR) head is configured for use in Thermally Assisted Magnetic Recording (TAMR). Two or three contiguous write shields, of various widths and thicknesses, formed on a leading edge side of the write gap (WG), main pole (MP) and near-field transducer (NFT), protect the head during write touchdowns (TD) and signal the approach of such a touchdown. Moreover during a write touchdown the contact with the head is restricted to the large write shields, producing a large touchdown area (TDA) and insuring the lifetime of the head.

First claim

We claim:

1. A slider-mounted read/write head configured for Thermally Assisted Perpendicular Magnetic Recording (PMR TAMR), comprising:
a TAMR apparatus for supplying optical power to heat a magnetic disk;
a slider mounted PMR inductive coil write head having a main magnetic pole (MP) for recording on said magnetic disk, and a near-field transducer (NFT) for transferring said optical power to said recording disk surface, wherein said MP and said NFT emerge at a write gap at an air-bearing surface (ABS) of said slider; and
a write heater, Hw, for adjusting flying height during said write head operation; and
three write shields, denoted WS 1 , WS 2 , and WS 3 , formed sequentially in a leading direction and contiguously on each other, wherein WS 1 is immediately below said MP and NFT, and wherein faces of said shields are exposed at said ABS; wherein
said PMR further comprises at least one head-disk interference sensor (HDIs) for detecting write TDs; wherein
said three write shields have corresponding thicknesses T 1 , T 2 and T 3 ; and
write shields WS 1 , WS 2 and WS 3 may be formed as single sections or in a multiplicity of symmetrically disposed sections, each section having a corresponding width and thickness; wherein
said write head is mounted on a slider configured to provide aerodynamic stability when at an operational flying height.

2. A slider-mounted read/write head configured for Thermally Assisted Perpendicular Magnetic Recording (PMR TAMR), comprising:
a TAMR apparatus for supplying optical power to heat a magnetic disk;
a slider mounted PMR inductive coil write head having a main magnetic pole (MP) for recording on said magnetic disk, and a near-field transducer (NFT) for transferring said optical power to said recording disk surface, wherein said MP and said NFT emerge at a write gap at an air-bearing surface (ABS) of said slider; and
a write heater, Hw, for adjusting flying height during said write head operation; and
two write shields, denoted WS 1 and WS 2 , formed sequentially in a leading direction and contiguously on each other, wherein WS 1 is immediately below said MP and NFT, and wherein faces of said shields are exposed at said ABS; wherein
said PMR further comprises at least one head-disk interference sensor (HDIs) for detecting write TDs; wherein
said two write shields have corresponding thicknesses T 1 and T 2 ; and
write shields WS 1 and WS 2 may be formed as single sections or in a multiplicity of symmetrically disposed sections, each section having a corresponding width and thickness; wherein
said write head is mounted on a slider configured to provide aerodynamic stability when at an operational flying height.

3. The slider-mounted read/write head configured for Thermally Assisted Perpendicular Magnetic Recording (PMR TAMR) of claim 1 wherein said write heater is formed on said inductive write coil and below said magnetic pole (MP).

4. The slider-mounted read/write head configured for Thermally Assisted Perpendicular Magnetic Recording (PMR TAMR) of claim 2 wherein said write heater is formed on said inductive write coil and below said magnetic pole (MP).

5. The slider-mounted read/write head configured for Thermally Assisted Perpendicular Magnetic Recording (PMR TAMR) of claim 1 wherein there is only a single head-disk interference sensor (HDIs).

6. The slider-mounted read/write head configured for Thermally Assisted Perpendicular Magnetic Recording (PMR TAMR) of claim 2 wherein there is only a single head-disk interference sensor (HDIs).

7. The slider-mounted read/write head configured for Thermally Assisted Perpendicular Magnetic Recording (PMR TAMR) of claim 1 wherein said WS 1 is formed into three sections, symmetrically disposed about a center line.

8. The slider-mounted read/write head configured for Thermally Assisted Perpendicular Magnetic Recording (PMR TAMR) of claim 2 wherein said WS 1 is formed into three sections, symmetrically disposed about a center line.

9. The slider-mounted read/write head configured for Thermally Assisted Perpendicular Magnetic Recording (PMR TAMR) of claim 1 wherein said WS 1 is formed as a single section that is narrower than said WS 2 and WS 3 , wherein both WS 2 and WS 3 are of equal widths.

10. The slider-mounted read/write head configured for Thermally Assisted Perpendicular Magnetic Recording (PMR TAMR) of claim 2 wherein said WS 1 is formed as a single section that is narrower than said WS 2 .

11. The slider-mounted read/write head configured for Thermally Assisted Perpendicular Magnetic Recording (PMR TAMR) of claim 1 wherein during a write TD contact with said read/write head is at said leading shields.

12. The slider-mounted read/write head configured for Thermally Assisted Perpendicular Magnetic Recording (PMR TAMR) of claim 2 wherein during a write TD contact with said read/write head is at said leading shields.

13. The slider-mounted read/write head configured for Thermally Assisted Perpendicular Magnetic Recording (PMR TAMR) of claim 1 wherein there are no metal shields co-linear with said MP and formed to either side of it.

14. The slider-mounted read/write head configured for Thermally Assisted Perpendicular Magnetic Recording (PMR TAMR) of claim 2 wherein there are no metal shields co-linear with said MP and formed to either side of it.

15. The slider-mounted read/write head configured for Thermally Assisted Perpendicular Magnetic Recording (PMR TAMR) of claim 1 wherein said TAMR configuration comprises a source for supplying power in the form of electromagnetic radiation, a waveguide to transfer said electromagnetic radiation towards an ABS and a near-field transducer (NFT) at said ABS comprising a plasmon generator to produce plasmon modes by coupling to said electromagnetic radiation and to then direct near-field energy from said plasmon modes to a position on a disk that is generally coincident with a region upon which said write head directs a magnetic flux.

16. The slider-mounted read/write head configured for Thermally Assisted Perpendicular Magnetic Recording (PMR TAMR) of claim 2 wherein said TAMR configuration comprises a source for supplying power in the form of electromagnetic radiation, a waveguide to transfer said electromagnetic radiation towards an ABS and a near-field transducer (NFT) at said ABS comprising a plasmon generator to produce plasmon modes by coupling to said electromagnetic radiation and to then direct near-field energy from said plasmon modes to a position on a disk that is generally coincident with a region upon which said write head directs a magnetic flux.

17. A head gimbal assembly, comprising
The slider-mounted PMR read/write head of configured for Perpendicular Magnetic Recording Thermally Assisted Recording (PMR TAMR) of claim 1 ;
a suspension that elastically supports said slider-mounted PMR TAMR read/write head, wherein
said suspension has a flexure to which said slider-mounted PMR TAMR read/write head is joined, a load beam with one end connected to said flexure and a base plate connected to the other end of said load beam.

18. A head gimbal assembly, comprising
The slider-mounted PMR read/write head of configured for Perpendicular Magnetic Recording Thermally Assisted Recording (PMR TAMR) of claim 2 ;
a suspension that elastically supports said slider-mounted PMR TAMR read/write head, wherein
said suspension has a flexure to which said slider-mounted PMR TAMR read/write head is joined, a load beam with one end connected to said flexure and a base plate connected to the other end of sa

Assignees

• Sae Magnetics Hk Ltd
• Headway Tech Inc

Inventors

• Zeng Qinghua
• Ngan Siu Yin
• Cha Ellis
• Liu Kowang

Classifications

• G11B2005/0021

  Thermally assisted recording using an auxiliary energy source for heating the recording layer locally to assist the magnetization reversal · CPC title

• G11B5/6076

  Detecting head-disk contact · CPC title

• G11B5/4866

  the arm comprising an optical waveguide, e.g. for thermally-assisted recording · CPC title

• G11B5/3912 Primary

  Arrangements in which the active read-out elements are transducing in association with active magnetic shields, e.g. magnetically coupled shields (G11B5/3916 takes precedence) · CPC title

• G11B5/3106

  where the integrated or assembled structure comprises means for conditioning against physical detrimental influence, e.g. wear, contamination (G11B5/3133 takes precedence) · CPC title