Granted Patent B2

US 12,444,438 · App. 18/581,359 · Granted Oct 14, 2025

Inventors: Yong Hu (San Ramon, CA); Taichi Nakamura (Sagamihara, JP); Biao Sun (Fremont, CA); Xiaojuan Ran (Shenzhen, CN)

Assignee: Western Digital Technologies, Inc.

G11B5/6082G11B33/1446G11B2005/0021G11B2209/02

Abstract

Claims (42)

1. A slider for a data storage device, the slider having an air-bearing surface (ABS) that includes at least three levels, the at least three levels including a media-adjacent level, a first recessed level, and a second recessed level, wherein, in an orientation in which the ABS is oriented upward, the media-adjacent level is above the first recessed level, and the first recessed level is above the second recessed level, the slider comprising:

a trailing pad comprising a recording head, an outer surface, and an inner surface, wherein the outer surface is at the media-adjacent level and the inner surface is at the first recessed level;

a hole in the inner surface of the trailing pad, wherein a bottom surface of the hole is at the second recessed level; and

an island blocker situated within the hole, wherein a media-facing surface of the island blocker is at the media-adjacent level,

wherein the recording head is situated between the island blocker and a trailing edge of the slider.

2. The slider recited in claim 1 , wherein a maximum width of the hole in a cross-track direction is at least 75 percent of a maximum width of the inner surface of the trailing pad in the cross-track direction.

3. The slider recited in claim 1 , wherein at least one of a size or a shape of the island blocker is configured to block and/or redirect particles moving in an airflow direction toward the recording head at all slider skew angles between a maximum inner-diameter skew angle and a maximum outer-diameter skew angle.

4. The slider recited in claim 1 , wherein the first recessed level is recessed from the media-adjacent level by between about 50 nm and about 300 nm.

5. The slider recited in claim 4 , wherein the second recessed level is recessed from the media-adjacent level by between about 500 nm and about 2500 nm.

6. The slider recited in claim 1 , wherein the recording head comprises a heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) writer.

7. A method of manufacturing the slider recited in claim 1 , the method comprising:

in a first manufacturing step in which at least one other surface at the second recessed level is created, creating the hole; and

in a second manufacturing step in which at least one other surface at the media-adjacent level is created, creating the island blocker.

8. The slider recited in claim 1 , wherein the island blocker comprises a lower portion and an upper portion.

9. The slider recited in claim 1 , wherein the island blocker comprises a ledge at the first recessed level.

10. A method of manufacturing the slider recited in claim 9 , the method comprising:

in a first manufacturing step in which at least one other surface at the second recessed level is created, creating the hole;

in a second manufacturing step in which at least one other surface at the first recessed level is created, creating the ledge; and

in a third manufacturing step in which at least one other surface at the media-adjacent level is created, creating the media-facing surface of the island blocker.

11. A data storage device, comprising:

a recording media; and

the slider recited in claim 1 .

12. A slider for a heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) data storage device, the slider comprising:

a HAMR head comprising a near-field transducer (NFT) situated on an outer region of a trailing pad of the slider; and

a particle-blocking structure configured to mitigate a formation of smear on a media-facing surface of the NFT, the particle-blocking structure comprising an island blocker within a hole in an inner surface of the trailing pad of the slider, the hole extending perpendicular to an air-bearing surface (ABS) of the slider,

wherein:

the island blocker has a form factor such that the island blocker blocks oncoming particles with angles of arrival within a specified range of a centerline of the slider.

13. The slider recited in claim 12 , wherein the specified range includes a first angular range on a first side of the centerline and a second angular range on a second side of the centerline.

14. The slider recited in claim 12 , wherein a depth of the hole is between about 800 nm and about 5000 nm relative to the media-facing surface of the NFT.

15. A method of manufacturing the slider recited in claim 12 , the method comprising:

in a first manufacturing step, creating the hole; and

in a second manufacturing step performed after the first manufacturing step, creating the island blocker.

16. The slider recited in claim 12 , wherein the island blocker comprises a lower portion and an upper portion.

17. The slider recited in claim 12 , wherein the island blocker comprises a ledge, wherein the ledge is recessed from a media-facing surface of the island blocker.

18. The slider recited in claim 17 , wherein a recess distance between the media-facing surface of the island blocker and the ledge is between about 50 nm and about 300 nm.

19. A method of manufacturing the slider recited in claim 17 , the method comprising:

in a first manufacturing step, creating the hole;

in a second manufacturing step performed after the first manufacturing step, creating the ledge; and

in a third manufacturing step performed after the second manufacturing step, creating the media-facing surface of the island blocker.

20. A data storage device, comprising:

a recording media; and

the slider recited in claim 12 .

Assignments (2)

Priority Claims (1)

Continuity (1)

References Cited (40)