Proximity recording design considerations

"Proximity recording" terminology has been used for the head/media system with the head flying close to the media surface. With current media technology, the glide avalanche is about 1 /spl mu/in; a head which flies at less than 2 /spl mu/in has been considered to be in the proximity regime. To date there has been sparse amounts of literature or study on this subject. This paper proposes a new regime of the head/media interface that the proximity recording technology is based upon. It is called the pseudo contact regime. This paper presents new considerations in the designs of airbearing and suspensions for the proximity recording head as well as additional tribological issues.