Magnetic Recording Head Bond Pad Sharing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Magnetic recording transducers face challenges in minimizing the number of electrical bond pads due to space constraints and increased complexity, especially with the addition of new components or sensors, which can lead to bias contention and degraded performance.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of a slider with shared electrical bond pads between components, where a temporary component is used initially and rendered non-functional, allowing other components to remain operational and utilize the freed-up bond pads for biasing.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If additional components or sensors are added to the magnetic recording transducer, then functionality and sensing capability are improved, but the number of electrical bond pads increases leading to space constraints and increased complexity
Solution Approach 1:
Multiple components (sensor, heater, reader) are coupled to the same pair of electrical bond pads, merging their electrical connections. This allows shared use of bond pads across different components, reducing the total number of bond pads required while maintaining enhanced functionality through multiple operating modes.
Solution Approach 2:
The electrical bond pads are designed to serve multiple functions by being shared across different components. The same bond pad pair can bias the sensor, heater, and reader at different times, making the bond pad structure universal and multi-functional rather than dedicated to single components.
2Device complexity
If multiple components share the same electrical bond pads, then the number of bond pads is reduced, but bias contention occurs leading to degraded performance
Solution Approach 1:
The system dynamically switches between different components coupled to the same bond pads. Control circuitry enables temporal separation of component operation, where the sensor, heater, and reader are activated at different times rather than simultaneously, preventing bias contention while maintaining reduced bond pad count.
Solution Approach 2:
Components sharing the same bond pads are activated in periodic sequences rather than continuously or simultaneously. The sensor operates during specific time intervals, the heater during others, and the reader during yet other intervals, creating a periodic action pattern that eliminates bias interference.
Data Source
AI summary
An apparatus includes a slider of a magnetic recording transducer comprising a plurality of electrical bond pads. A component is coupled to a pair of the electrical bond pads. A sensor is coupled to the pair of the electrical bond pads in parallel with the component. The sensor is configured to sense for one or more of thermal asperities of a magnetic recording medium, voids of the medium, spacing changes between the slider and the medium, and contact between the slider and the medium. The sensor is configured to be rendered non-functional in response to the sensor receiving a predetermined signal. The component is configured to remain operable after the sensor is rendered non-functional.