Shared Bond Pad Architecture for Magnetic Recording Head Power Distribution
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Solution Overview
Problem
Magnetic recording heads face challenges in minimizing the number of bond pads while accommodating additional electrical components, as increasing the bond pad count beyond a certain limit requires complex and costly design changes, and sharing bond pads can lead to bias contention and performance degradation.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of a slider with shared electrical bond pads, where components with similar biasing and filtering requirements share bond pads, and the use of diodes and Zener diodes to manage biasing and noise immunity, allowing for the reduction or elimination of bond pads without compromising performance.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If the number of bond pads is increased to accommodate additional electrical components, then the functionality and performance of the magnetic recording head is improved, but the design complexity and manufacturing cost increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple electrical components (readers, writers, heaters, sensors) onto a single bond pad, allowing them to share the same electrical connection. This merging approach enables the magnetic recording head to accommodate more functional components without increasing the total number of bond pads, thereby improving functionality while maintaining simple design and manufacturing processes
Solution Approach 2:
Each bond pad is designed to serve multiple functions by being electrically connected to multiple different components. A single bond pad can simultaneously power readers, writers, heaters, and sensors, making the bond pad structure universal and multi-functional. This eliminates the need for dedicated bond pads for each component, reducing overall complexity
2Device complexity
If bond pads are shared among multiple components to reduce the total number of bond pads, then design complexity is reduced, but bias contention and performance degradation occur
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the electrical connection path by introducing separate return paths for different components sharing the same bond pad. Each component has its own dedicated return path to ground or reference potential, preventing electrical interference and bias contention between components while still allowing them to share the forward power path through the common bond pad
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces intermediary electrical connections and return paths that mediate between multiple components sharing a bond pad. These intermediary paths isolate the electrical characteristics of each component, preventing performance degradation while maintaining the benefits of pad sharing
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This approach enables the addition of more components to magnetic recording heads without increasing the bond pad count, maintaining performance and reducing design complexity and costs.
Implementation Method 1
A first diode is disposed on the slider and coupled in series with the first ground-coupled component
Implementation Method 2
In some embodiments, a first Zener diode is disposed on the slider and coupled between the first diode and the ground pad
Data Source
AI summary
A slider of a magnetic recording head includes a ground pad and a plurality of electrical bond pads coupled to bias sources. The plurality of electrical bond pads includes a plurality of shared bond pads. A first component of the slider is coupled to a first bond pad and one of the shared bond pads. The slider includes one or more additional components each coupled to a respective pair of the shared bond pads. A first ground-coupled component of the slider is coupled between one of the shared bond pads and the ground pad. A first diode is disposed on the slider and coupled in series with the first ground-coupled component. A first Zener diode can be disposed on the slider and coupled between the first diode and the ground pad for enhanced ground noise immunity of the powered devices.