METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR REMOVING DEBRIS FROM A SLIDER IN A DISK DRIVE USING LOAD/UNLOAD TECHNOLOGY

摘要

The present invention provides a method and load/unload structure forimplementation in a disk drive, whereby debris is prevented from accumulating on thesurface of an air bearing slider (13) by moving the slider ABS across a stationarycleaning pad (61, 61') formed integrally with the ramp structure (41) during loading andunloading. As a first aspect of the invention, space at the disk perimeter is usedefficiently by providing a stationary cleaning surface integral to the ramp structure. Asanother aspect of the invention, cleaning may be enhanced by dithering the slider acrossthe stationary pad, e.g., at selected resonant frequencies, to remove a larger volume ofdebris. As yet another aspect of the invention, baffling (93) may be provided in the diskdrive interior to channel the airflow generated by the disk (12) such that it is directedover the cleaning pad in the direction of an air filter.