Abstract: A method and apparatus for selectively disabling a magnetic head to protect the head from damage caused by electrostatic discharge (ESD) during manufacture. The magnetic head is electrically attached to a flexure. The flexure has a set of test pads and a hinged portion that includes a shorting bar. The hinged portion of the flexure is folded to cause the shorting bar to short the test pads. The folded portion is secured with a clip which may be removed and replaced. A novel test clip is used with the flexure. The folded flexure is inserted into jaws of the test clip. The jaws clamp the folded flexure. The shorting bar shorts the sensor when the test clip is in a first position and removes the short when the test clip is moved to a second position.

Abstract: A head gimbal assembly for use in disk drive systems comprises a load beam, a flexure connected to the load beam, an air bearing slider connected to the flexure which includes a transducer and a plurality of bonding pads and a plurality of transducer wires, wherein each transducer wire is physically connected at a first point on the load beam and to a first location on said slider and to one of the bonding pads. The flexure, slider and first length of each transducer wire between the first location on the slider and the bonding pads form an integral unit which moves as a single unit during operation of a disk drive. The transducer wires have a second length between the first point on the load beam and the first location on the slider such that the stiffness of the second length does not restrict movement of the integral unit.

Abstract: A head gimbal assembly (HGA) for use with a magnetic head and disk assembly, and a method for loading the slider of a head gimbal assembly enable the read/write rail of the slider to fly at a desired height. According to one embodiment of the invention, the slider of the HGA has two rails: a read/write rail for data transduction and an inactive rail for balancing the read/write rail. A desired gram loading on the read/write rail of the slider is known from the performance characteristics of the magnetic head and disk assembly. During production of the HGA, the position of the slider with respect to the load arm is varied in a direction perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the load arm. A load transducer is used to measure the gram loading on the rails of the slider. The slider is permanently mounted at a position at which the load on the read/write rail falls within a predetermined range about the desired gram loading value. Slider load variations are borne by the inactive rail.

Abstract: A process for producing air bearing sliders for thin film magnetic heads, one at a time from a strip of material having the thin film heads aligned in a column. The thin film heads are aligned within the column such that the slider processing is performed in a direction substantially parallel to the orientation of the column. In one embodiment, a mechanical backing, fixture or substrate provides structural rigidity to the strip of material having the sliders while undergoing mechanical processing, such as lapping.