Abstract:
Electrostatic discharge (ESD) has been a significant problem in the manufacturing processes of the
magnetic recording head technologies for many years. Besides direct discharge damage, ESD can
also generate electromagnetic interference (EMI) which could possibly cause failure in magnetic
read heads. The aims of this work are to measure the EMI from ESD simulator based on the
standard IEC 61000-4-2 and to investigate the effects of EMI on tunneling magnetoresistive
(TMR) read heads. The discharge current and the EMI generated by ESD simulator are measured
in the experiment. Also, the EMI is applied to the TMR read heads at various amplitudes and
distances in order to evaluate the changes of read head parameters including the bit error rate,
resistance, read back signal amplitude, and asymmetry parameter of the head. The results show that
the discharge current waveform is consistent with the IEC standard current waveform. In addition,
it is found that the EMI is insufficient to cause a permanent change of the read head parameters at
distances above 2 cm indicating the minimal impact on the head performance. Further experiments
are proposed to carry out more detailed studies of the EMI effects on head parameters in order to
improve the methods to prevent the degradation of parameters which can be a latent failure in the
magnetic read heads.
