Thermal flying height control (TFC) has recently been implemented in magnetic recording disk drives to reduce the flying height at the read/write element of magnetic recording sliders. This paper investigates the flying characteristics of a new TFC slider design with two heater and insulator elements. The flying height reduction of the slider is determined as a function of the placement and thermal characteristics of the heater and insulator elements. Simulation results show that for a constant heater power, the flying height reduction at the read/write element of the dual TFC heater with thermal insulators can be increased by approximately 9% and 16% than the single TFC heater design.In addition, the thermal actuation efficiency (ratio of flying height reduction to maximum thermal protrusion) of the read/write element is improved.

Fig. 1. (a) Schematic model of the dual TFC heater and (b) blow-up of TFC heaters with thermal

 

Fig. 2. Temperature distribution inside the slider with (a) single TFC heater (b) dual TFC heaters

 

Fig. 3. Thermal protrusion profiles along the center line of the slider with one and two heater elements, respectively

 

 

Fig. 4. Flying height profiles along the center line of the slider with no TFC heater, one and two heater elements, respectively