Negative Pressure air bearing slider having transition region between positive and negative pressure regions

摘要

An improved negative pressure air bearing (NPAB) slider for rotating disk drives provides an easy means of controlling the slider characteristics including roll, pitch, fly height and skew sensitivity. The NPAB slider has positive pressure, negative pressure and transition regions whereby the shape of the regions determine the direction and amount of air flowing into the negative pressure region and thus the magnitude and distribution of negative pressure generated. The regions can be formed during a single etch to a single etch depth simplifying manufacturing. One embodiment includes a third rail located within the negative pressure region. Other embodiments include side rails with leading edge tapers or alternatively leading edge steps.