Tribological and recording performance of carbon-coated thin film head sliders on unlubricated and lubricated thin film media

A significant improvement in wear performance of the head-disk interface has been obtained by coating thin film head sliders with a carbon thin film. Head sliders were coated with several thicknesses of diamond-like carbon sputtered by two methods: Facing Target Sputtering (FTS) and DC Magnetron Sputtering. The wear performance of standard 3.5" diameter disks with and without lubricant was evaluated by continuous drag testing (CDT). Comparison was made for each disk/head pair by the means of kinetic friction vs the number of revolutions and SEM image of wear features on the wear track. Finally, the signal output and S/N ratio were measured using 70% thin film head sliders uncoated and coated with various carbon thicknesses. The decrease of the output signal from carbon-coated head sliders followed the classical loss relationship fairly well.>