Abstract: An overcoat overcoat for a head and/or media surface is made of a hard, dense and durable silicon-carbide (SiC) layer. The SiC layer does not require an interlayer to promote adhesion to underlying magnetic or ceramic layers, thus reducing head-media spacing and increasing areal storage density and resolution. The SiC is formed in a manner that creates an overcoat with density, hardness, durability and corrosion resistance similar to DLC. The SiC overcoat formation process also penetrates less into underlying magnetic layers than is conventional, reducing further the spacing of active elements by inactive coatings. In an alternative embodiment, SiC may be formed by this process as an interlayer for a carbon overcoat such as DLC or ta-C. This allows the overcoat to be made thinner, since the interlayer is hard and dense, while retaining the chemical and other surface properties of the carbon overcoat.

Abstract: The present invention provides a read/write head for use in a hard disk drive system. The head includes a self-adjusting sacrificial pad constructed of a material relatively softer than the recording medium of the recording system. The pad, present on an air-bearing surface of the head, generates an area of negative pressure, which acts to pull the head toward a magnetic disk of the disk drive system. Upon contact with certain asperities in the generally smooth surface of disk, the sacrificial pad wears down. As the pad wears, the negative pressure created by the pad decreases, allowing the head to fly further from the disk until there is no more contact with the disk. In this way the head of the present invention flies as close as possible to the disk. The sacrificial pad also acts to protect the read and write elements of the head.