Method and apparatus for dynamically controlling the flying behavior and height of a read/write head in a storage device by manipulating the spring constant of the suspension

摘要

A suspension arm (300) of a disk storage device has an elastic portion (310) with thickness d₁ and a rigid portion (320) with thickness d₂. At the free end of the suspension arm, a slider (325) is mounted on the suspension arm. The bottom surface of the slider has a distance FH to a top surface of a hard disk (329). The suspension arm particularly comprises a heating element (330) disposed on the suspension arm. An electric current I_c flowing through electrical supply wires (350) causes the temperature of the suspension arm locally to rise and therefore its spring constant to decrease. Together with the force F_a resulting from the air cushion effect of the slider a new equilibrium flying height FH is stabilized.