Disclosed herein are sliders with at least one notch-cut in the trailing pad, methods of making them, and data storage devices comprising them. In some embodiments, a slider comprises a leading-edge surface, a trailing-edge surface, and an air-bearing surface (ABS) that includes a trailing pad situated closer to the trailing-edge surface than to the leading-edge surface, wherein the trailing pad comprises at least one notch-cut (e.g., two notch-cuts) in a trailing side of the trailing pad. The at least one notch-cut provides higher pressure at the recording head situated in the trailing pad and higher thermal flight control efficiency without a commensurate increase in touch-down power. As a result, the temperature around the recording head is lower than without the at least one notch-cut, thereby improving the lifetime of the recording head and data storage device.

The present invention is directed to the fabrication of head sliders for use in hard disk drives, and in particular the provision and usage of electrical bond pads on the slider surface structure to accommodate needs of the fabrication process as well as slider operation within a disk drive.

The present invention relates to the field of controlling tape drive magnetic head spacing and the use of hard disk drive heads in a tape drive. The present invention is related to magnetic tape data storage and tape recorders that include components designed to minimize or eliminate head-to-tape contact to reduce or eliminate wear and contamination of the tape and the magnetic heads. Methods and apparatus of the present invention may control the head-to-media spacing by moving locations of magnetic heads relative to a tape. Such apparatus may include components designed to minimize magnetic spacing. This may be accomplished using actuators that move magnetic heads, or that move both magnetic heads and the tape of a tape drive. This may include supporting a back surface of the tape. The movement of the tape past the magnetic heads may be performed using mechanisms that contact and drive the back surface of the tape.

The present invention is directed to the fabrication of head sliders for use in hard disk drives, and in particular the provision and usage of electrical bond pads on the slider surface structure to accommodate needs of the fabrication process as well as slider operation within a disk drive.

An apparatus includes: a media; a heat assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) head over the media; and control circuitry, coupled to the HAMR head, the control circuitry being configured to: receive a write command to write the media; apply a dynamic flying height (DFH) control before asserting a write gate of the HAMR head; assert the write gate to the HAMR head; and enable a flying height compensation mechanism to maintain a constant value of a flying height of the HAMR head over the media during a next assertion of the write gate.

First and second nominal head-to-media spacings of a magnetic recording head are determined that result in tracks being written to a magnetic recording medium at respective narrower and wider tracks widths. Three or more adjacent tracks of user data are written to the magnetic recording medium using one of the first and second nominal head-to-media spacings so that the adjacent tracks alternate between the narrower and wider track widths.

A data storage device is disclosed comprising a head actuated over a disk, wherein the head comprises a laser configured to heat the disk while writing data to the disk. At least four different laser powers are applied to the laser and a fly height of the head over the disk is measured at each laser power. A lasing threshold power for the laser is detected based on the measured fly heights.

A data storage device is disclosed comprising a head actuated over a disk, wherein the head comprises a fly height actuator (FHA). A FHA control signal is applied to the FHA, wherein the FHA control signal comprises a DC component and an AC component. A fly height metric is measured representing a fly height of the head over the disk for different levels of the DC component. A modulation amplitude of the fly height metric is detected, and a minimum in the modulation amplitude of the fly height metric is detected.

A change in servo active gain control values is determined from a beginning of a writing of a test region of a recording medium to an end of the writing of the test region. The servo active gain control values are read from servo marks by a read transducer of a read/write head during the writing. After writing of the test region, the test region is read by the read transducer to determine a change in recorded amplitude from the beginning of the writing to the end of the writing. A gamma value of the read/write head is determined based on the change in servo active gain control values and the change in recorded amplitude.

A sensor supported by a head transducer has a temperature coefficient of resistance (TCR) and a sensor resistance. The sensor operates at a temperature above ambient and is responsive to changes in sensor-medium spacing. Conductive contacts connected to the sensor have a contact resistance and a cross-sectional area adjacent to the sensor larger than that of the sensor, such that the contact resistance is small relative to the sensor resistance and negligibly contributes to a signal generated by the sensor. A multiplicity of head transducers each support a TCR sensor and a power source can supply bias power to each sensor of each head to maintain each sensor at a fixed temperature above an ambient temperature in the presence of heat transfer changes impacting the sensors. A TCR sensor of a head transducer can include a track-oriented TCR sensor wire for sensing one or both of asperities of the medium.