Servo controlled lubricant thickness for near contact magnetic recording

The disk drive assembly has a disk assembly and a transducer carrying actuator which are surrounded by a housing and a lubricant film is maintained on the recording surfaces of the disk. A lubricant reservoir is positioned close to the disk recording surface, and a heater element is mounted in heat transfer relationship with the reservoir. A sensor determines the thickness of the lubricant film on the disk recording surface. A controller governs the power delivered to the heating element w.r.t. the lubricant film thickness determined by the sensor. A recirculating device captures lubricant that collects within the housing and returns it to the lubricant reservoir. The recirculator includes a wick structure that extends from a housing location where lubricant collects to the reservoir. The reservoir is planar and overlies the disk data surface with a separation not exceeding 500 microns.