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Fujitsu Laboratories Ltd.
Fujitsu Develops Lubricant Technology to Prevent Corrosion of Hard Disk Drives
--Enables Use of Mobile Hard Drives in Hot and Damp Conditions--
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Tokyo, December 6, 2001--- Fujitsu Laboratories today announced that it has developed a new technology to better protect the magnetic medium (area of hard disk where data is actually recorded) from corrosion caused by moisture and contaminants, resulting in a significant increase in hard-disk reliability.
This technology is expected to expand the range of applications for hard disk drives to mobile equipment, such as handheld devices and car navigation systems, which are exposed to heat and moisture, and where hard disk drive reliability is essential.
Background
Hard drive data densities have doubled every year, generating the need to shrink the gap (magnetic spacing) between the read/write head and magnetic medium.
Typically, a layer of magnetic material on the surface of a hard disk is covered with a protective film coated with a lubricant that protects the drive head from friction and wear (Figure 1). With the 30 Gb/in2 media currently on the market, the protective film is no more than 6 nm thick (1 nm = one billionth of a meter).
As the magnetic spacing gets tighter, the protective layer grows even thinner. A thinner protective film, however, makes it more likely that in actual use, microscopic contaminants and moisture will penetrate to the magnetic layer. This can lead to corrosion (Figure 2) and ultimately cause head crashes, making it impossible to read/write data. In the harsh environments to which handhelds and other mobile devices are exposed, this presents a serious problem and has been a major obstacle to developing greater data densities and wider applications for hard drive technology.
About the New Technology
Focusing its attention on the lubricant used to coat the media for preventing corrosion, Fujitsu Laboratories found that exposing a photo-sensitive lubricant to high-energy vacuum ultraviolet light (light with a wavelength under 200 nm) improved its bonded ratio by more than 50%. The result was that the surface free energy (i.e., how readily moisture and contaminants adhere), which determines the medium's performance, was reduced by 25% to about the same level as TEFLONR, which is known for its water repellent properties.
This technology reduces by about 25% the amount of contaminants adhering to the platter's surface at the time of manufacture, and prevents such contaminants from penetrating to the magnetic layer during use, resulting in a hard drive that is better able to resist corrosion (Figure 3).
Details of this technology were presented on December 3, 2001, at the International TISD Conference (Tribology of Information Storage Devices) in Sendai, Japan.
Trademarks
TEFLON is a registered trademark of DuPont. All other company/product names mentioned herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.
About Fujitsu
Fujitsu is a leading provider of Internet-focused information technology solutions for the global marketplace. Its pace-setting technologies, best-in-class computing and telecommunications platforms, and worldwide corps of systems and services experts make it uniquely positioned to unleash the infinite possibilities of the Internet to help its customers succeed. Headquartered in Tokyo, Fujitsu Limited (TSE:6702) reported consolidated revenues of 5.48 trillion yen for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2001.
Internet: http://www.fujitsu.com/
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