Method for selecting an electrical power to be applied to a head-based flying height actuator

1. A method of selecting an electrical power to be applied to a subject head-based flying height actuator during operation of a disk drive having a subject disk and a subject head that includes a transducer and the subject head-based flying height actuator, the method comprising:

detecting a touch-down power for each of a plurality of representative heads, each of the plurality of representative heads including a representative flying height actuator, wherein each of the plurality of representative heads is in intermittent contact with a representative disk when the touch-down power corresponding to that representative head is applied to the representative flying height actuator of that representative head;

estimating a relationship between back-off power and touch-down power for the plurality of representative heads, wherein each of the plurality of representative heads has a specified transducer-disk spacing when the touch-down power detected for that representative head minus a back-off power determined for that representative head is applied to the representative flying height actuator of that representative head;

detecting a touch-down power for the subject head;

calculating a back-off power for the subject head using the estimated relationship and the detected touch-down power for the subject head; and

selecting the electrical power to be applied to the subject head-based flying height actuator to be equal to the detected touch-down power for the subject head minus the calculated back-off power for the subject head.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the disk drive further comprises a voice coil motor (VCM) that radially positions the subject head relative to an axis of rotation of the subject disk in response to a VCM current, and wherein detecting the touch-down power for the subject head comprises determining an electrical power applied to the subject flying height actuator at which the VCM current exceeds a threshold.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the specified transducer-disk spacing is in the range 0.5 nm to 4 nm.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the subject head-based flying height actuator is a heating element that causes thermal expansion of the transducer.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the subject head-based flying height actuator is a magnetostrictive material that is subject to a magnetic field created by the electrical power.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the subject head-based flying height actuator is a piezoelectric material that moves the transducer.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the subject head-based flying height actuator is a piezoelectric material that changes a crown curvature of the head.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein estimating the relationship is performed prior to fabrication of the disk drive.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the relationship is linear and is characterized by a slope and a y-intercept, the slope and the y-intercept being chosen to minimize a sum of squared discrepancies between the back-off powers determined for the plurality of representative heads, and corresponding back-off powers predicted by the linear relationship for the plurality of representative heads.

10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising measuring a measured transducer-disk spacing for each of the plurality of representative heads, the measurement based on a read-back signal obtained from that representative head.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein the back-off power for each the plurality of representative heads is determined as equaling the touch-down power detected for that representative head minus an electrical power applied to the representative flying height actuator of that representative head when the measured transducer-disk spacing equals the specified transducer-disk spacing.

12. The method of claim 10 wherein the read-back signal is obtained by a dynamic electrical test stand to which the representative head is mounted, the representative head not being mounted within any disk drive.

13. The method of claim 10 wherein the representative head is mounted within a representative disk drive, and the read-back signal is obtained by circuitry pertaining to the representative disk drive.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein detecting the touch-down power for each of the plurality of representative heads comprises determining an electrical power applied to the representative flying height actuator of that representative head at which an electrical current driving a voice coil motor in the representative disk drive exceeds a threshold.

15. The method of claim 1 , wherein detecting the touch-down power for the subject head comprises determining an electrical power applied to the subject flying height actuator at which a read-back signal from the subject head is degraded by contact with the subject disk.

16. The method of claim 1 , wherein detecting the touch-down power for each of the plurality of representative heads comprises determining an electrical power applied to the representative flying height actuator of that representative head at which a read-back signal from that representative head is degraded by contact with the subject disk.

17. The method of claim 1 , wherein the selected electrical power is applied to the subject head-based flying-height actuator while the subject head is performing read or write operations, but not during a period when the subject head is not performing read or write operations.