Parma Project

– Funding Agency: European Commission

– Funding Type: Special Target Research Project (STREP)

– Project Title: Performance Advances in Recording through Micro Actuation (PARMA)

– Starting date: 01-Oct-2006

– Project Duration: 3 years

– Consortium members: 4

– Research funding: 1,825,000 &euro

– Dimensions corresponding to the dimensions of a pico slider
   (1,240 μm x 990 μm x 300 μm, length x width x height)

– SLIM slider consisting of a bottom magnetic wafer (with two microactuators) and a top    micromechanics wafer bonded by a spacer

– Read/write element attached to the chiplet

– Superior to presently known approaches

– Promises lower costs for slider plus read/write element than for a present day slider

– Allows to dynamically adjusting the flying height

– Allows for a second stage actuation for track following

– Two microactuators integrated

  • Even excitation: Platform lowers

  • Opposite excitation: Platform swivels

– Lateral displacement (fine tracking): ±5 tracks at 20 ktpi (±635 nm)

– Maximal rotation for ±635 nm track following: ±0.18°

– Resulting height change: < 2 nm

– Simulation results:

  • Lowest resonance frequency for flying height adjustment: 1.2 kHz

  • Lowest resonance frequency for track following: 5.6 kHz

– Increasing the recording density of Hard Disc Drives (HDD) causing a decrease of:

  • Distances between flux reversals

  • Width of the magnetic data tracks

  • Flying height

– Voice coil actuator running into limitations with regard to track following

– Changes in flying height during track-seeking motions causing signal loss and risk of    head-to-disk contact

– Integration of an electromagnetic actuator into the slider

– Using a chiplet with the read/write element attached to the integrated actuator

– Using a Slider with Integrated Microactuator (SLIM)