Patent ID: 6914752

Claim:
A disk drive having a rotatable disk with a magnetic recording layer and a head for reading data from or recording data to the magnetic recording layer on the disk, the disk drive comprising: a carrier for the head and having a top side, a disk side, a front end and a trailing end, the carrier having an air-bearing surface on the disk side and a contact pad on the disk side near the trailing end; an actuator for moving the carrier across the disk; and a suspension connecting the carrier to the actuator and comprising a flexure attached to the top side of the carrier and a load beam attached to the flexure and having a tip contacting the top side of the carrier at a pivot point, the carrier having a positive pitch with its front end higher above the disk than its trailing end if the contact pad is not in contact with the disk, the load beam applying a force to urge the carrier contact pad to contact the disk and the flexure applying a flexure moment about the pivot point to urge the carrier contact pad to contact the disk, wherein the pivot point is located approximately at a midpoint between the carrier front end and the carrier trailing end and closer to the front end of the carrier than the net force applied by the air-bearing surface of the carrier when the disk is rotating at its operational speed, and wherein the major portion of the air-bearing surface is located closer to a midpoint between the carrier front end and the carrier trailing end than to the carrier front end; whereby said net air-bearing force generates a moment about the pivot point to partially counteract the flexure moment and the moment generated from the adhesive force between the disk and the carrier contact pad.