Hard disk drive slider coating for suspension mechanical improvements

Abstract

An assembly configured for a hard disk drive, the assembly comprising: a head slider having a suspended face and a recording medium face opposite the suspended face, where the slider accommodates a read-write transducer at or near a trailing edge (TE) face opposite the LE face; and a suspension assembly including a flexure having a seating structure extending from a main planar body of the flexure, the suspension face of the slider being adhered to the seating structure. A first portion of the suspension face of the slider is coated with an anti-reflective coating (ARC) that extends in the direction of the LE face at least to a farthest portion of the support structure of the flexure. An adhesive attaches the head slider to the flexure and is positioned integrally in engagement with at least a portion of the ARC.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] Embodiments of the present invention may generally relate to hard disk drives, and in particular to methods for improving the attachment and mobility of a head slider. Background Art

[0002] A hard disk drive (HDD) is a non-volatile storage device that is housed in a protective housing and stores digitally encoded data on one or more disks with a magnetic surface. When the HDD is in operation, each magnetic recording disk is rapidly rotated by a spindle system. Data is read from and written to the magnetic recording disk using a read-write head (or "transducer") positioned above a specific location on the disk by an actuator. The read-write head uses a magnetic field to write data to and read data from the surface of the magnetic recording disk. The write head operates using an electric current flowing through its coil, thereby generating a magnetic field. Electrical pulses are sent to the write head in different patterns of positive and negative currents. The current in the coil of the write head generates a local magnetic field in the gap between the head and the disk, which in turn magnetizes a small area on the recording medium.

[0003] In addition to the primary voice coil motor (VCM) actuator that provides relatively coarse positioning, the increasing areal density (a measure of the amount of information bits that can be stored on a given area of ​​the disk surface) has led to the necessity to develop and implement secondary and even tertiary actuators for improving head positioning through relatively fine positioning. Some HDDs use microactuator designs or milliactuator designs to provide second and / or third-level actuation of the recording head to enable the head to be more accurately positioned relative to the recording track. Milliactuators can be broadly classified as actuators that move the entire front end of the suspension (spring, load beam, flexure, and slider), and are typically used as second-level actuators. Microactuators (or "microactuators") can be broadly classified as actuators that only move (e.g., rotate) the slider so that the slider moves relative to the suspension and load beam, or only move the read-write element relative to the slider body. Microactuators can be used alone in conjunction with a primary actuator (e.g., VCM), or in conjunction with a primary actuator and a secondary actuator (e.g., milliactuator) for more precise head positioning. The terms "microactuator" and "secondary actuator" and "dual-stage actuator" as used herein generally refer to a relatively finely positioned actuator (e.g., technically, a secondary or tertiary) used in conjunction with a relatively coarsely positioned primary actuator, such as a VCM actuator in an HDD environment. Piezoelectric (PZT)-based transducers and capacitive micromachined transducers are two types of microactuators that have been developed for use with HDD sliders. However, mechanical tolerances within dual-stage actuator systems have historically been tight.

[0004] Any approaches that may be described in this section are approaches that could be pursued, but not necessarily approaches that have been previously conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated, it should not be assumed that any approaches described in this section qualify as prior art merely by virtue of their inclusion in this section. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0005] Embodiments are illustrated by way of example and not limitation in the accompanying drawings in which like reference numerals refer to similar elements and in which:

[0006] Figure 1 is a plan view showing a hard disk drive according to one embodiment;

[0007] Figure 2 is a perspective view showing a heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) head slider coupled to a laser module according to one embodiment;

[0008] Figure 3A is a side view showing a heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) chip-on-substrate assembly (CoSA) according to one embodiment;

[0009] Figure 3B According to one embodiment, Figure 3A A cross-sectional perspective view of the HAMR CoSA;

[0010] Figure 4A is a top view showing a known slider-flexure assembly according to one embodiment;

[0011] Figure 4B is a top view showing an enhanced slider-flexure assembly according to one embodiment;

[0012] Figure 5 is a side view showing a slider-adhesive interface for an uncoated smooth surface versus a coated rough surface according to one embodiment;

[0013] Fig. 6A is a top view showing a critical gap region for a slider-flexure assembly according to one embodiment;

[0014] Figure 6B is a side view showing a clearance region for a slider-flexure assembly according to one embodiment;

[0015] Figure 6C It is shown for Figure 4A A side view of an ideal slider attachment arrangement of a known slider-flexure assembly;

[0016] Fig.6D It is shown for Figure 4AA side view of an unstable slider attachment arrangement of a known slider-flexure assembly;

[0017] Figure 7 is a diagram according to one embodiment for Figure 4B A side view of a stabilized slider attachment device of the enhanced slider-flexure assembly; and

[0018] Figure 8 is a flow chart illustrating a method of manufacturing a hard disk drive head gimbal assembly according to one embodiment. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0019] Generally, methods for improving the attachment and mobility of a head slider in a hard disk drive (HDD) are described. In the following description, for the purpose of explanation, many specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the embodiments of the present invention described herein. However, it will be apparent that the embodiments of the present invention described herein can be practiced without these specific details. In other cases, well-known structures and devices may be shown in the form of block diagrams in order to avoid unnecessarily obscuring the embodiments of the present invention described herein.

[0020] introduction

[0021] the term

[0022] Reference herein to "an embodiment," "one embodiment," etc., is intended to mean that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic being described is included in at least one embodiment of the present invention. However, instances of such phrases are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment.

[0023] The term "substantially" should be understood to describe a feature that is mostly or nearly structured, constructed, dimensioned, etc., but in practice manufacturing tolerances, etc. cause the structure, configuration, dimensions, etc. not always or necessarily to be exactly as described. For example, describing a structure as "substantially vertical" would give the term its ordinary meaning, such that the sidewalls are vertical for all practical purposes, but may not be exactly at 90 degrees throughout.

[0024] While terms such as "best," "optimize," "minimum," "minimize," "maximum," "maximize," etc. may not have certain values ​​associated with them, if such terms are used herein, it is intended that one of ordinary skill in the art will understand that such terms will include affecting values, parameters, metrics, etc. in beneficial directions consistent with the present disclosure as a whole. For example, describing a value of something as "minimum" does not require that the value actually equal some theoretical minimum value (e.g., zero), but should be understood in a practical sense that the corresponding goal is to move the value in a beneficial direction toward the theoretical minimum value.

[0025] Context

[0026] Recall that secondary and tertiary actuators are being developed and implemented for improving read-write head positioning through relatively fine positioning, and such dual-stage actuator systems require tight mechanical tolerances throughout the associated slider-suspension components. In addition and as previously mentioned, increasing the storage capacity of hard disk drives (HDDs) is one of the ongoing goals of HDD technology evolution. In one form, this goal is manifested as increasing surface density, such as by using heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR). With HAMR, a laser light source (e.g., a laser diode) is integrated into a magnetic recording head slider. Laser diodes are fragile and are generally not suitable for direct mechanical attachment to a head slider. Therefore, a base assembly can be used to mount the laser diode to the slider body. By adding such HAMR components to an otherwise conventional head slider, additional mechanical tolerances and constraints are also introduced into the slider-suspension design.

[0027] Figure 2 2 is a perspective view showing a HAMR head slider coupled to a laser module according to one embodiment. The HAMR head slider assembly 200 includes a laser light source 204 (or simply "laser 204"), such as a semiconductor laser or a laser diode, coupled to or integrally formed with a base 206 for mounting to a HAMR head slider 202 and for locally heating a magnetic medium (e.g., see Figure 1 The components that are the combination of the laser 204 and the base 206 are generally referred to as a "laser module" or a chip-on-base (CoSA) block or a CoSA laser module. For non-limiting example, the HAMR laser module including the laser 204 and the base 206 can be mounted on or near the back side (e.g., the suspension side opposite the air bearing surface or ABS) of the HAMR head slider 202. This local heating of the magnetic medium 120 momentarily reduces the local coercive force of the magnetic medium 120, thereby greatly facilitating writing to the medium 120.

[0028] Figure 3A is a side view showing a heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) chip-on-substrate assembly (CoSA), and Figure 3B It is shown Figure 3A2, both according to one embodiment. For HAMR designs, the base 206 is typically bonded to the flexure bonding surface 202a of the slider 202, whereby the emitting surface of the corresponding laser 204 faces the flexure bonding surface 202a of the slider 202. Holes are typically formed in both the flexure 308 (partially depicted in phantom for context while allowing clarity of the load beam assembly) and the load beam 310, and the laser module passes through these holes to couple with the slider 202. Longitudinal side rails 312 are typically fabricated on each lateral side of the load beam 310 by bending the sides of the load beam 310.

[0029] Figure 4A is a top view illustrating a known slider-flexure assembly. Assembly 400 includes a head slider 402 (or simply "slider 402," shown herein in phantom for clarity) adhesively coupled to a suspension flexure 404 ("flexure 404") via an adhesive 403. Flexure 404 includes an extension structure 404a (which may also be referred to as a stud, "standoff feature," or "standoff 404a") extending from a major planar structure or body of flexure 404 (e.g., from a tongue-like portion of flexure 404) and to which a suspended surface of slider 402 is adhered. Historically, to facilitate the use of machine vision (and / or computer vision) techniques for assembly of HAMR sliders, such as for use with CoSA (e.g., see Figure 2The slider 402 surface is mounted with a laser 204 and a base 206 (of which laser 204 and base 206 are mounted to the slider 402 surface, creating certain visual identification and / or aiming features on the slider 402 HAMR mounting surface. At least in part to help the machine "see" or read these features, an anti-reflective coating (ARC) 406 is applied to a portion of the surface of the slider 402, because the natural surface of the slider 402 is very shiny, which is due to the fact that it is generally composed of AlTiC (aluminum titanium carbide). Therefore, the manufacturing features are created on the ARC 406 surface, rather than on the slider 402 surface. However, one challenge or disadvantage of applying an ARC 406 with a footprint as depicted and within manufacturing tolerances is that the ARC 406 may not conveniently intersect with the support 404a, so that the slider 402 may not be mounted accurately, stably, and consistently enough. For example, it is noted that the outer boundary of the ARC 406 may or may not fully and stably engage with the support 404a structure at all points, and the edge of the ARC 406 does not conveniently intersect with the adhesive 403. For example, the slider 402 may be mounted at an undesirable inclination, rather than being mounted substantially parallel to the flexure 404. As a result, the clearance between the slider 402 and the flexure 404 may be insufficient to prevent / inhibit the slider 402 from undesirably contacting the flexure 404, which in turn may inhibit the dual actuator system (e.g., a PZT microactuator) from operating accurately and efficiently and without being hampered by slider-flexure contact.

[0030] Extended Slider Coating Improvements

[0031] Figure 4B 4 is a top view showing an enhanced slider-flexure assembly according to one embodiment. Assembly 450 includes a head slider 402 (shown in phantom for clarity) adhesively coupled to a suspension flexure 404 ("flexure 404") by adhesive 403. Slider 402 has a slider body having a leading edge (LE) face, a suspension face / surface facing flexure 404, and a recording medium face / surface opposite the suspension face, and accommodating a read / write transducer (e.g., see FIG. 4 ) at or near a trailing edge (TE) face opposite the LE face of slider 402 body. Figure 1 Here, the flexure 404 also includes an extension structure 404a (which may also be referred to as a "support 404a") extending from the main planar structure or body of the flexure 404 (e.g., from the tongue-shaped portion of the flexure 404) and to which the suspension surface of the slider 402 is adhered. According to one embodiment, Figure 4A4. As compared to the assembly 400 of FIG. 4, an anti-reflective coating (ARC) 456 is applied to an extended greater portion of the surface of the slider 402. As such, the slider 402 is coated with an ARC 456 that extends along the LE direction at least to the furthest portion of the seat 404a of the flexure 404. According to one embodiment and as depicted, the ARC 456 extends from the TE face of the slider 402 generally along the suspension face and terminates at a location just beyond the seat 404a of the flexure 404. According to one embodiment, the ARC 456 is configured to physically engage with a majority of the mating surface of the seat 404a of the flexure 404. According to one embodiment, the ARC 456 is configured to physically engage with the entire adhesive 403 wetted area of ​​the flexure 404. In other words, the adhesive 403 attaches the slider 402 to the flexure 404 such that the adhesive 403 is positioned to engage with at least a portion of the ARC 456 throughout its entire footprint. Note that the coating material referred to as anti-reflective coating (ARC) 456 may vary from implementation to implementation, and likewise, slider coating materials other than anti-reflective materials (e.g., typically some combination of silicon oxide, or tantalum oxide, or platinum, or titanium, etc.) may be applied to slider 402 for the purposes described herein.

[0032] One expected benefit of extending the ARC 456 footprint as described and depicted is increased adhesion (e.g., shear) strength, at least in part because the surface roughness of the ARC 456 (e.g., Ra=0.974 nm for silicon oxide) is greater than the surface roughness of the underlying AlTiC of the slider 402 body (e.g., Ra=0.440 nm). Figure 5 is a side view showing a slider-adhesive interface for an uncoated smooth surface versus a coated rough surface, according to one embodiment. The rough surface, as exemplified by the application of ARC 456, effectively provides a greater surface area for adhesive 403 to adhere to, as compared to the uncoated smooth surface of the AlTiC slider 402. Studies of the shear strength of the adhesive bond between adhesive 403 and the rough surface of ARC 456 show an increase of approximately 55% compared to the adhesive bond between adhesive 403 and the smooth AlTiC surface of the slider 402.

[0033] Fig. 6A is a top view showing the critical gap region of the slider-flexure assembly, and Figure 6B6 is a side view showing a gap region of a slider-flexure assembly, both according to one embodiment. Assembly 600 is shown to include a slider 402 (shown here in phantom for clarity) coupled to a flexure 404 having an extension structure or standoff 404a extending from a major planar body 404m of flexure 404 to form a mounting support for slider 402. These components are functionally similar to Figure 4B Similar parts are the same or similar.

[0034] For a dual-stage actuator (e.g., a PZT microactuator) stroke rotation without resistance (friction), it is generally desirable to have a gap (c) between the flexure 404 and the LE half of the slider 402. The area shown corresponding to the footprint of the slider 402 is considered to be a critical gap area, whereby sufficient gap is preferably always present according to a given design configuration. For example, under ideal conditions, a typical design gap between the slider 402 and the corresponding flexure 404 is only about 5 μm (micrometers or microns). However, such gap height is dependent on the local flexure cover stack (or "cover") feature height and slider attachment device bonding parallelism (e.g., between the slider and the flexure) control. In addition, in the case of a HAMR slider, the HAMR slider is relatively long (e.g., may be about 50% longer than a conventional slider in the TE-LE direction) and has a very limited bonding area, thereby increasing the risk of slider-flexure contact (e.g., the parallelism control margin is about 1.5 times tighter than using a conventional non-HAMR slider). Therefore, again, a slight tilt of the slider bond attachment towards the flexure LE may result in contact and create dynamic performance anomalies / instability issues. Additionally, the presence of the HAMR CoSA further limits the slider adhesion (eg, gluing) area.

[0035] Figure 6C It is shown for Figure 4A A side view of an ideal slider attachment arrangement of a known slider-flexure assembly, and Fig.6D It is shown for Figure 4A 4. Here, ARC 406 extends only about 30% or so from TE along the length of slider 402 and therefore does not completely cover the area where standoff 404a is located. Therefore, as generally depicted, ARC 406 has very limited overlap with standoff 404a to achieve stable parallel control of the slider attachment. Therefore, the slider 402 attachment can be as shown in FIG. Fig.6D 404, thereby being prone to undesired contact with flexure 404.

[0036] Figure 7 is a diagram according to one embodiment for Figure 4BSide view of the stabilized slider attachment arrangement of the enhanced slider-flexure assembly. Figure 6C-6D Compared to ARC 406 of the slider 402, according to one embodiment, an extended application of the ARC, such as coating a first portion of the suspension surface of the slider 402 with ARC 456, extends to at least the farthest portion of the support 404a of the flexure 404 in the LE direction (i.e., in the direction of the LE surface or in the direction toward the LE surface), thereby enabling a more stable attachment and more controlled bonding parallelism. According to a related embodiment, ARC 456 extends generally from the TE surface on the suspension surface of the slider 402 and terminates at a position just beyond the support 404a. In any case, a second portion of the suspension surface of the slider 402 body that extends beyond the support 404a structure of the flexure 404 (in the direction toward the LE surface) is not coated with ARC 456, such that the second portion is located at a distance from the main planar body of the flexure 404 (e.g., see Figure 6B The distance between the slider 402 and the flexure 404m is greater than the first portion. In other words, the TE portion of the slider 402 corresponding to the TE portion of the suspension surface is thicker than the LE portion of the slider 402 corresponding to the LE portion of the suspension surface due to the additional thickness corresponding to the applied ARC 456. Therefore, undesired contact between the slider 402 and the flexure 404, such as during a micro-actuation sequence, can be avoided.

[0037] Method of manufacturing hard disk drive head gimbal assembly

[0038] Figure 8 is a flow chart illustrating a method of manufacturing a hard disk drive head gimbal assembly according to one embodiment. Figure 8 The head gimbal assembly (HGA) produced by the method is designed, configured, and intended to be implemented into a hard disk drive (HDD) (e.g., see Figure 1 ). For context, each individualized head slider has a slider body having what is referred to herein as a suspension surface, a recording medium surface opposite the suspension surface, a leading edge (LE) surface connecting the suspension surface and the recording medium surface, and accommodating a read / write transducer at or near a trailing edge (TE) surface opposite the LE surface and also connecting the suspension surface and the recording medium surface.

[0039] At block 802, a first portion of a suspension surface of a magnetic head slider is coated with an anti-reflective coating (ARC). Figure 4B , Figure 6A-6B , Figure 7 ) surface facing the flexure (ie, the suspension surface) (see, for example, Figure 7 ), for example, starting from or around the TE surface, coated with ARC 456 ( Figure 4B , Figure 7 ).

[0040] At block 804, a head slider is attached to a suspension assembly, the suspension assembly including a flexure having a support structure, the suspension face of the slider being attached to the support structure, wherein the ARC is positioned to extend at least to the furthest portion of the support structure of the flexure in a direction toward the LE face. For example, the head slider 402 is attached to a suspension assembly including a flexure having a support 404a ( Figure 4B , Fig. 6A , Figure 7 ) of the flexure 404 ( Figure 4B , Figure 6A-6B , Figure 7 ), to which the suspension face of the slider 402 is adhered, wherein the ARC 456 is positioned to extend in a direction toward the LE face to at least the furthest portion of the seat 404a of the flexure 404, e.g., such that the ARC 456 covers the entire portion of the slider 402 that is physically engaged with the seat 404a. Thus, by such configuration and positioning of the ARC 456 on the suspension face of the slider 402, (i) better slider 402-flexure 404 bonding is achieved due to the increased surface roughness of the ARC 456 compared to the AlTiC slider body, (ii) better slider 402 stability is achieved by fully mating the ARC 456 with the seat 404a to avoid rocking at the contact point, which is referred to elsewhere herein as (better) bond parallelism control, and (iii) more clearance is achieved or provided due to the additional thickness of the ARC 456 at the seat 404a, thereby providing better rotatability of the slider 402 about the gimbal recess during micro-actuation.

[0041] According to one embodiment, coating a first portion of the suspension surface (block 802) includes coating the first portion substantially from the TE surface to an end position proximate to where the support 404a of the flexure 404 is located. Additionally, according to one embodiment, coating the first portion includes not coating a second portion of the suspension surface of the slider 404 beyond the end position of the first portion in the direction of the LE surface (e.g., see Figure 7 ), so that the second portion is away from the main plane body 404m of the flexure 404 ( Figure 6B ) is greater than the first part.

[0042] Physical Description of Exemplary Operational Scenarios

[0043] Embodiments may be used in the context of a digital data storage device (DSD) such as a hard disk drive (HDD). Thus, according to one embodiment, Figure 1 A plan view illustrating a conventional HDD 100 is shown to help describe how a conventional HDD generally operates.

[0044] Figure 1The functional arrangement of components of the HDD 100 including a slider 110b including a magnetic read-write head 110a is shown. The slider 110b and the head 110a may be collectively referred to as a head slider. The HDD 100 includes at least one head gimbal assembly (HGA) 110 having a head slider, a lead suspension 110c attached to the head slider typically via a flexure, and a load beam 110d attached to the lead suspension 110c. The HDD 100 also includes at least one recording medium 120 rotatably mounted on a spindle 124 and a drive motor (not visible) attached to the spindle 124 for rotating the medium 120. The read-write head 110a (which may also be referred to as a transducer) includes a write element and a read element for respectively writing and reading information stored on the medium 120 of the HDD 100. The medium 120 or multiple disk media may be attached to the spindle 124 using a disk clamp 128.

[0045] The HDD 100 also includes an arm 132 attached to the HGA 110, a carriage 134, a voice coil motor (VCM) including an armature 136 including a voice coil 140 attached to the carriage 134, and a stator 144 including a voice coil magnet (not visible). The armature 136 of the VCM is attached to the carriage 134 and is configured to move the arm 132 and the HGA 110 to access the portion of the media 120, which are collectively mounted on a pivot shaft 148 with an interposed pivot bearing assembly 152. In the case of an HDD having multiple disks, the carriage 134 may be referred to as an "E-block" or comb because the carriage is arranged to carry an array of linked arms, giving it the appearance of comb teeth.

[0046] The assembly including a head gimbal assembly (e.g., HGA 110) having a flexure to which a head slider is coupled, an actuator arm (e.g., arm 132) and / or a load beam to which the flexure is coupled, and an actuator (e.g., VCM) to which the actuator arm is coupled may be collectively referred to as a head stack assembly (HSA). However, the HSA may include more or fewer components than those described. For example, the HSA may refer to an assembly that also includes an electrical interconnect component. Generally speaking, the HSA is an assembly that is configured to move a head slider to access portions of the medium 120 for read and write operations.

[0047] Further references Figure 1, electrical signals including write signals to the head 110a and read signals from the head (e.g., current to the voice coil 140 of the VCM) are transmitted by a flexible cable assembly (FCA) 156 (or "flexible cable", or "flexible printed circuit" (FPC)). The interconnect between the flexible cable 156 and the head 110a may include an arm electronics (AE) module 160, which may have an onboard preamplifier for the read signal and other read channel and write channel electronic components. The AE module 160 may be attached to the carriage 134, as shown. The flexible cable 156 may be coupled to an electrical connector block 164, which in some configurations provides electrical connectivity through an electrical feed-through provided by the HDD housing 168. The HDD housing 168 (or "housing base" or "substrate" or simply "base") together with the HDD cover provides a semi-sealed (or hermetically sealed, in some configurations) protective housing for the information storage components of the HDD 100.

[0048] Other electronic components, including a disk controller and servo electronics including a digital signal processor (DSP), provide electrical signals to the drive motor, the voice coil 140 of the VCM, and the head 110a of the HGA 110. The electrical signal provided to the drive motor causes the drive motor to rotate, thereby providing torque to the spindle 124, which in turn is transmitted to the medium 120 attached to the spindle 124. As a result, the medium 120 rotates in the direction 172. The rotating medium 120 forms an air cushion that acts as an air bearing on which the air bearing surface (ABS) of the slider 110b rides, so that the slider 110b flies above the surface of the medium 120 without making contact with the thin magnetic recording layer that records information. Similarly, in an HDD that utilizes a lighter-than-air gas (such as helium for non-limiting example), the rotating medium 120 forms an air cushion that acts as a gas or fluid bearing on which the slider 110b rides.

[0049] The electrical signal provided to the voice coil 140 of the VCM enables the head 110a of the HGA 110 to access the track 176 on which the information is recorded. As a result, the armature 136 of the VCM swings through the arc 180, which enables the head 110a of the HGA 110 to access the individual tracks on the medium 120. The information is stored in a plurality of radially nested tracks on the medium 120, which are arranged in sectors (such as sector 184) on the medium 120. Accordingly, each track is composed of a plurality of sectorized track portions (or "track sectors") such as sectorized track portion 188. Each sectorized track portion 188 may include recorded information and a data header containing error correction code information and a servo burst signal pattern, such as an ABCD-servo burst signal pattern (which is information identifying the track 176). When accessing track 176, a read element of head 110a of HGA 110 reads a servo burst signal pattern which provides a position error signal (PES) to the servo electronics, which in turn controls an electrical signal provided to the voice coil 140 of the VCM, thereby enabling head 110a to follow track 176. Upon finding track 176 and identifying a particular sectorized track portion 188, head 110a either reads information from track 176 or writes information to track 176 in accordance with instructions received by the disk controller from an external agent, such as a microprocessor of a computer system.

[0050] The electronic architecture of the HDD includes multiple electronic components for performing their respective HDD operating functions, such as a hard disk controller ("HDC"), an interface controller, an arm electronic module, a data channel, a motor driver, a servo processor, a buffer memory, etc. Two or more such components may be combined on a single integrated circuit board called a "system on a chip" ("SOC"). Several, if not all, of such electronic components are typically arranged on a printed circuit board that is coupled to the bottom side of the HDD, such as to the HDD housing 168.

[0051] Reference herein to hard disk drives, such as reference Figure 1The HDD 100 shown and described may include an information storage device sometimes referred to as a "hybrid drive." A hybrid drive generally refers to a storage device that has the functionality of a conventional HDD (see, for example, HDD 100) combined with a solid-state storage device (SSD) that uses non-volatile memory, such as flash memory or other solid-state (e.g., integrated circuit) memory, which is electrically erasable and programmable. Because the operation, management, and control of different types of storage media are generally different, the solid-state portion of the hybrid drive may include its own corresponding controller functionality, which may be integrated into a single controller along with the HDD functionality. The hybrid drive may be constructed and configured to operate and utilize the solid-state portion in a variety of ways, such as, as a non-limiting example, using the solid-state memory as a cache memory, for storing frequently accessed data, for storing I / O intensive data, and the like. In addition, the hybrid drive may be constructed and configured to be essentially two storage devices in a single housing, namely a conventional HDD and an SSD, with one or more interfaces for host connection.

[0052] Extensions and replacements

[0053] In the foregoing description, embodiments of the present invention have been described with reference to a large number of specific details, which may vary according to different specific implementations. Therefore, various modifications and changes may be made to the embodiments without departing from the broader essence and scope of the embodiments. Therefore, the present invention and the applicant's sole and exclusive indicator of the present invention are a set of claims issued by this patent application in the specific form in which such claims are issued, including any subsequent corrections. Any definition of the terms contained in these claims explicitly set forth herein should determine the meaning of these terms used in the claims. Thus, limitations, elements, characteristics, features, advantages or attributes that are not explicitly cited in the claims should not limit the scope of this claim in any way. Therefore, this specification and the drawings are considered to be illustrative rather than restrictive.

[0054] Additionally, in this description, certain process steps may be shown in a particular order, and letters and alphanumeric labels may be used to identify certain steps. Unless expressly indicated in the specification, the embodiments are not necessarily limited to any particular order of performing such steps. In particular, these labels are used only to facilitate identification of the steps and are not intended to specify or require a particular order of performing such steps.

Claims

1. A component, comprising: a magnetic head slider having a slider body having a leading edge (LE) surface, a suspension surface, and a recording medium surface opposite the suspension surface, wherein the slider accommodates a read / write transducer at or near a trailing edge (TE) surface opposite the LE surface of the slider body; and a suspension assembly including a flexure having an extension structure extending from a major planar body of the flexure, the suspension surface of the slider being adhered to the extension structure, A first portion of the suspension surface of the slider body is coated with an anti-reflective coating (ARC), and the anti-reflective coating (ARC) extends along the LE surface at least to a farthest portion of the extension structure of the flexure.

2. The assembly of claim 1, wherein the ARC extends generally from the TE face and terminates at a location just beyond the extended structure of the flexure.

3. The assembly of claim 2, wherein: A second portion of the suspension surface of the slider body beyond the extended structure of the flexure in the direction of the LE surface is not coated with the ARC, such that the second portion is farther from the main planar body of the flexure than the first portion.

4. The assembly of claim 1 further comprising an adhesive attaching the head slider to the extension structure of the flexure and integrally engaging a portion of the first portion of the suspension surface of the slider body. 5 . The assembly of claim 4 , wherein the surface roughness of the ARC is greater than the surface roughness of the slider body.

6. The assembly of claim 4, wherein the ARC is configured to physically engage a majority of a mating surface of the extension structure of the flexure.

7. The assembly of claim 1, further comprising a heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) chip-on-substrate assembly (COSA), the heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) chip-on-substrate assembly (COSA) comprising a submount coupled to a laser.

8. A hard disk drive comprising the assembly according to claim 1.

9. A hard disk drive head slider, the hard disk drive head slider comprising: a slider body having a leading edge (LE) face, a suspension face, and a recording medium face opposite the suspension face, wherein the slider houses a read / write transducer at or near a trailing edge (TE) face of the slider body opposite the LE face; and An anti-reflective coating (ARC) covers the TE portion of the suspension surface of the slider body and extends at least to an entire mounting portion of the suspension surface, the entire mounting portion being configured for mounting the slider to a suspension assembly. 10 . The magnetic head slider according to claim 9 , wherein the ARC extends from the TE surface to a position just beyond the mounting portion.

11. The magnetic head slider according to claim 9, wherein the slider body further comprises: An LE portion of the suspension surface, the LE portion being positioned beyond the mounting portion and not coated with the ARC, such that a TE portion of the slider corresponding to the TE portion of the suspension surface is thicker than an LE portion of the slider corresponding to the LE portion of the suspension surface. 12 . The magnetic head slider according to claim 9 , wherein the ARC is composed of a material having a surface roughness greater than a surface roughness of the slider body.

13. The head slider of claim 9, further comprising a heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) chip-on-substrate assembly (COSA), the heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) chip-on-substrate assembly (COSA) comprising a submount coupled to a laser.

14. A hard disk drive comprising the head slider according to claim 13.

15. A method of manufacturing a hard disk drive (HDD) head gimbal assembly (HGA), the method comprising: coating a first portion of a suspension surface of a magnetic head slider with an anti-reflective coating (ARC), the magnetic head slider having a slider body having a leading edge (LE) surface, a suspension surface, and a recording medium surface opposite the suspension surface; and The magnetic head slider is adhered to a suspension assembly, wherein the suspension assembly includes a flexure having a support structure, and the suspension surface of the slider is adhered to the support structure. Wherein the ARC is positioned to extend to at least a distal portion of the standoff structure of the flexure in a direction toward the LE face.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein coating the first portion comprises coating the first portion from the TE surface to an end location proximate to where the standoff structure of the flexure is located.

17. The method according to claim 16, wherein coating the first portion includes not coating a second portion of the suspension surface of the slider body that extends beyond the end position of the first portion in the direction of the LE surface, so that the second portion is farther away from the main plane body of the flexure than the first portion.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein: adhering the head slider includes applying an adhesive at a portion of the first portion of the suspension surface; and The surface roughness of the ARC is greater than the surface roughness of the slider body.

19. A HDD HGA produced according to the method of claim 15.

20. A component, comprising: A magnetic head slider, the magnetic head slider having a slider body, the slider body having a suspension surface and a recording medium surface opposite to the suspension surface, wherein the slider accommodates a read-write transducer; an anti-reflective coating (ARC), the anti-reflective coating (ARC) covering a portion of the suspension surface of the slider body; a suspension assembly comprising a flexure; and An adhesive attaches the head slider to the flexure and is positioned to integrally engage at least a portion of the ARC.

21. The assembly of claim 20, wherein the surface roughness of the ARC is greater than the surface roughness of the slider body.

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