Tribological head-disk interface testing system

Claim 1

A method of testing component and performance degradation for a tribological head-disk interface apparatus having a test FAHA device, a standard FAHA device and a test disk with at least one track, the method comprising: (a) placing the test FAHA device in contact with the test disk; (b) identifying a test track on the test disk; (c) recording zero bits completely around each test track; (d) measuring selected readback parameters of the test track; (e) placing the test FAHA device on the test track; (f) rotating the test disk while accelerating and decelerating the test disk numerous times; (g) replacing the test FAHA device with the standard FAHA device; (h) measuring the selected readback parameters of the test track; and (i) comparing the measurements of steps (d) and (h).

Claim 2

A method of testing component and performance degradation for a tribological head-disk interface apparatus having a test FAHA device, a standard FAHA device and a test disk with at least one track, the method comprising: (a) placing the test FAHA device in contact with the test disk; (b) identifying a test track on the test disk; (c) recording zero bits completely around each test track; (d) measuring selected readback parameters of the test track; (e) placing the test FAHA device on the test track; (f) rotating the test disk while accelerating and decelerating the test disk numerous times; (g) replacing the test FAHA device with the standard FAHA device; (h) measuring the selected readback parameters of the test track; and (i) comparing the measurements of steps (d) and (h).

Claim 5

A method of testing component and performance degradation for a tribological head-disk interface apparatus having a test FAHA device, a standard FAHA device and a test disk with at least one track, the method comprising: (a) placing the test FAHA device in contact with the test disk; (b) identifying a test track on the test disk; (c) recording zero bits completely around each test track; (d) measuring selected readback parameters of the test track; (e) placing the test FAHA device on the test track; (f) rotating the disk and accelerating the rotation of the disk to the angular velocity at which the FAHA device would take off from the test disk were it not for the weight of same and then decelerating the test disk to zero angular velocity, and repeating the acceleration and deceleration numerous times; (g) replacing the test FAHA device with the standard FAHA device; (h) measuring the selected readback parameters of the test track; and (i) comparing the measurements of steps (d) and (h).

Claim 6

A method of testing component and performance degradation for a tribological head-disk interface apparatus having a test FAHA device, a standard FAHA device and a test disk with at least one track, the method comprising: (a) placing the test FAHA device in contact with the test disk; (b) identifying a test track on the test disk; (c) recording zero bits completely around each test track; (d) measuring selected readback parameters of the test track; (e) placing the test FAHA device on the test track; (f) rotating the disk and accelerating the rotation of the disk to the angular velocity at which the FAHA device would take off from the test disk were it not for the weight of same and then decelerating the test disk to zero angular velocity, and repeating the acceleration and deceleration numerous times; (g) replacing the test FAHA device with the standard FAHA device; (h) measuring the selected readback parameters of the test track; and (i) comparing the measurements of steps (d) and (h).

Claim 8

A method of testing component and performance degradation for a tribological head-disk interface apparatus having at least one standard FAHA device, at least one test FAHA device, a micro-pin FAHA device, and a test disk with at least one test track and one reference track, the method comprising: (a) identifying a test track and a reference track on the test disk; (b) recording zero bits completely around the test and reference tracks with a standard FAHA device; (c) measuring selected readback parameters on the test and reference tracks with the standard FAHA device; (d) placing a test FAHA device on the test track; (e) rotating the disk and accelerating the rotation of the disk to the angular velocity at which the test FAHA device would take off from the test disk were it not for the weight of same and then decelerating the test disk to zero angular velocity, and repeating the acceleration and deceleration at least one thousand times; (f) measuring the selected readback parameters on the test and reference tracks with the standard FAHA device; (g) placing the micro-pin of the micro-pin FAHA device in contact with the reference track; (h) rotating the disk and accelerating the rotation of the disk to the angular velocity of step (e) above and then decelerating the test disk to zero angular velocity and repeating the acceleration and deceleration at least one thousand times; (i) measuring disk wear on the reference track; (j) measuring the selected readback parameters on the test and reference tracks with the standard FAHA device; (k) repeating steps (b) through (j) above a selected number of times for the test disk; and (l) comparing the measurements of steps (c), (f), (i) and (j) every one thousand accelerations and decelerations.

Claim 9

A method of testing component and performance degradation for a tribological head-disk interface apparatus having at least one standard FAHA device, at least one test FAHA device, a micro-pin FAHA device, and a test disk with at least one test track and one reference track, the method comprising: (a) identifying a test track and a reference track on the test disk; (b) recording zero bits completely around the test and reference tracks with a standard FAHA device; (c) measuring selected readback parameters on the test and reference tracks with the standard FAHA device; (d) placing a test FAHA device on the test track; (e) rotating the disk and accelerating the rotation of the disk to the angular velocity at which the test FAHA device would take off from the test disk were it not for the weight of same and then decelerating the test disk to zero angular velocity, and repeating the acceleration and deceleration at least one thousand times; (f) measuring the selected readback parameters on the test and reference tracks with the standard FAHA device; (g) placing the micro-pin of the micro-pin FAHA device in contact with the reference track; (h) rotating the disk and accelerating the rotation of the disk to the angular velocity of step (e) above and then decelerating the test disk to zero angular velocity and repeating the acceleration and deceleration at least one thousand times; (i) measuring disk wear on the reference track; (j) measuring the selected readback parameters on the test and reference tracks with the standard FAHA device; (k) repeating steps (b) through (j) above a selected number of times for the test disk; and (l) comparing the measurements of steps (c), (f), (i) and (j) every one thousand accelerations and decelerations.