Patent ID: 7855854

Claim:
A head comprising: a slider having a leading face and a trailing face and an air bearing surface, the air bearing surface defining an upstream direction pointing from the trailing face to the leading face and a lateral axis that is orthogonal to the upstream direction, the slider having a width measured along the lateral axis; and a read transducer adjacent the trailing face; wherein the air bearing surface includes: a trailing pad including a major surface adjacent the transducer, the major surface lying in a primary plane; a left trailing air flow dam extending from the trailing pad along the lateral axis in a first direction; a right trailing air flow dam extending from the trailing pad along the lateral axis opposite the first direction, the trailing pad and the left and right trailing air flow dams together laterally spanning at least 75% of the width of the slider; and a sub-ambient pressure cavity disposed adjacent to and upstream of at least one of the left and right trailing air flow dams; wherein each of the left and right trailing air flow dams is recessed from the primary plane by a step depth in the range 0.05 to 0.5 microns, and the sub-ambient pressure cavity is recessed from the primary plane by a cavity depth in the range 0.8 to 2 microns, and wherein each of the left and right trailing air flow dams is disposed ahead of a lateral projection of the transducer by a distance measured in the upstream direction that is less than 25 microns.