Patent ID: 8049994

Claim:
A slider assembly for supporting a recording element in operative relation to a flexible moving recording medium comprising: a slider having a face positioned toward one side of the recording medium, said face comprising air bearing surfaces that are formed by etching, said face having a leading edge, trailing edge and two side edges relative to a motion of said recording medium, and a longitudinal axis disposed along its length, said longitudinal axis being at a non-zero skew angle with respect to the direction of motion of said recording medium; wherein a recording element is mounted in one of said air bearing surfaces in a vicinity of the trailing edge of said face, wherein there is no other slider or other supporting surface on an opposite side of the recording medium; a vacuum cavity formed by etching of said face for creation of sub-ambient pressure to attract said slider toward said recording medium; wherein at least one air bearing surface carried by said face is provided with a transverse pressure contour (TPC) along at least one of its side edges for providing increased flying height control to said slider, said TPC having at least an approximate step geometry provided by an etching process, a height (H) and width (L) to establish a H/L ratio of about 0.001 to about 0.10, and wherein the length of the TPC occupies at least a partial length of the air bearing surface side edge of its location; a mounting device to mount said slider in a biased manner toward the recording medium; said slider urged toward the recording medium with a preload force that is less than about 0.5 grams; wherein the flexible recording medium comprises a metallic substrate and at least one layer of magnetic material such that a thickness of the recording medium is less than about 0.005 inch.