LOW FLYING HEIGHT MEASUREMENT WITH MULTI-WAVELENGTH INTERFEROMETRY

A method for measurement of ultra-low flying height in head-disk spacing is described. Three different wavelengths are selected out from white light by filters to measure the spacing simultaneously. Besides solving the ambiguity problem, a more reliable result is achieved by using weighted average of measurement results from three different wavelengths, where the weight is dependent upon spacing. Fringe-bunching correction algorithm （FBC） and spot-tilling technique are adopted to suppress calibration and random errors. Moreover, incident bandwidth correction （IBC） method is introduced to compensate the error caused by low monochromaticity of incident light. Based on dynamic flying height tester （DFHT Ⅱ）, with the redesigned of photo-electric conversion and signal acquirement module, an instrument has been developed. And comparing the experimental data from the instrument with those from a KLA-FHT D6, the discrepancy is less than 5%. It indicates that the instrument is suitable to perform ultra-low flying heig