Fall 2001

ME/IE 8773-8774

Part 2: Engineering Challenges in the Disk Drive Industry

by

Zine-Eddine Boutaghou Ph.D.
Technologist
Advanced Mechanical Concepts
Seagate Technology

Wednesday, October 24, 2001
3:30-4:30 p.m.
Room 108 ME
Broadcast on UNITE Channel A
Coffee and cookies will be available in 152 ME following the seminar

This seminar highlights the progress and challenges faced by the disk drive industry in two areas, the tribology of heads and disks, and track following. In the area of tribology, current and future solutions adapted by the industry for contact start-stop and flyability will be discussed, with an emphasis on the number of approaches and the innovative solutions the industry has developed to these problems. The drive to higher areal density has presented significant engineering challenges for track following. In the area of track following, MEMS-based micro-actuator research, PZT-based actuators, and scaling technologies will be discussed. The disk drive industry has been extremely successful at extending the life of many technologies through scaling and innovative design approaches. However, scaling may not be sufficient at solving fundamentally intriguing problems at the atomic scale such as controlling head media separation within 1-2 nanometers or keeping the head disk off-track motion to less than 0.2 nm in a macro-mechanical system. To meet industry roadmap requirements over the next two years, these problems must be solved in a short timeframe. A vast range of unique challenges presented by the disk drive industry offers engineers the opportunity to change the technical landscape by embracing newly emerging technologies; this attitude contributes to a fast and fun learning environment in a fascinating and fast-paced industry.

Dr. Zine-Eddine Boutaghou grew up in Algiers, Algeria and received his B.S. degree from the Ecole Nationale Polytechnique d'Alger and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Minnesota. He greatly enjoyed his stay in the Department of Mechanical Engineering under the guidance of Prof. Art Erdman. After graduating from Minnesota, Dr. Boutaghou joined IBM Rochester where he focused on high speed bearing technologies in the Advanced Magnetic Recording Lab. Upon joining Seagate in 1994 he focused on the tribology of the head/disk interface. He introduced laser/padded sliders which increased the MTBF of disk drives by an order of magnitude. Dr. Boutaghou then expanded his research interests to include MEMS to support tracking technologies. Currently he is the director of the Advanced Mechanical Concepts Labs at Seagate, where he is aggressively launching MEMS technology within Seagate to provide head-level micro-actuators and manufacturing cost reduction devices. The primary goal is to make MEMS a mainstream technology in the disk drive world. Dr. Boutaghou has authored various papers in the International Journal of Tribology and has more than 105 patents granted with more than 200 patents pending.

Informal Faculty Luncheon: Wednesday, October 24, 2001, 12:30 p.m Dr. Boutaghou will not be able to attend.