Abstract
This paper addresses the issue of system identification for an active-head slider used to form a stable and reliable head-disk interface with a spacing of sub 3 nm. A new identification method is proposed to fit the highly nonstationary and highly nonlinear slider dynamics. The estimated model can be used for design of a model based nonlinear controller to control the flying height within the desired range. The effectiveness of the proposed system identification method is verified with simulation examples. © Springer-Verlag 2012.