Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
The trend toward smaller and smaller form factor drives has forced sliders to become
smaller as well. The typical Mini-Winchester slider design was about 4m-
m×3.2mm×0.86mminsize.MostheadmanufacturershavesinceshiftedtosmallerMicro,
Nano, Pico, or Femto sliders. The Femto sliders in use today are extremely small—about
the size of the ball in the tip of a ballpoint pen. Pico and Femto sliders are assembled by
using flex interconnect cable (FIC) and chip on ceramic (COC) technologies that enable
the process to be completely automated.
Table 8.1
shows the characteristics of the various types of sliders used in hard disk drives.
Table 8.1 Hard Disk Drive Slider Types
Smaller sliders reduce the mass carried at the end of the head actuator arms, which
provides increased acceleration and deceleration, thus leading to faster seek times. The
smaller sliders also require less surface area, allowing the head to track closer to the outer
and inner diameters, thus increasing the usable area of the disk platters. Further, the smal-
lerslidercontactareareducestheslightwearontheplattersurfacethatoccursduringnor-
mal startup and spindown of the drive platters.
Figure 8.8
shows a magnified photo of a
