Mechanically-Induced Readback Errors in Contact Recording

True contact recording, where the slider interacts substantially with the disk, produces read errors in the form of shifted bits. The errors arise from velocity jitter at suspension resonance frequencies, excited by the slider/disk contact, and degrade readback performance long before the onset of tribological wear. Performance degradation is particularly apparent in high altitude/low pressure situations, which increase the amount of slider/disk interaction. Channel optimization should be revisited for low flying components. © 1994, American Institute of Physics