Patent ID: 6999281

Claim:
A head slider for use opposite a rotatable disk in a disk drive apparatus, comprising a disk-facing surface for facing the rotatable disk, and a head disposed on said disk-facing surface so as to face the rotatable disk for performing at least one of recording and reproduction, wherein said disk-facing surface has: an upstream edge portion disposed in a lateral direction of said disk-facing surface and adapted to be perpendicular to a rotation direction of the rotatable disk and so as to be a leading edge portion of said disk-facing surface with respect to the rotation direction of the rotatable disk; a downstream edge portion disposed in said lateral direction of said disk-facing surface and so as to be a trailing edge portion of said disk-facing surface with respect to the rotation direction of the rotatable disk; a first positive-pressure generating section comprising a cross rail disposed a predetermined distance from said upstream edge portion and generally parallel to said upstream edge portion, and side rails connected with said cross rail at opposing end portions thereof and extended toward said downstream edge portion to terminate in downstream side rail ends; an upstream-side intermediate-level surface extending from said upstream edge portion to said cross rail, said upstream-side intermediate-level surface being parallel to said disk-facing surface and having a height lower than said cross rail such that a stepped portion is formed between said cross rail and said upstream-side intermediate-level surface; a second positive-pressure generating section projecting upwardly from said disk-facing surface and disposed adjacent said downstream edge portion at a center line with respect to said lateral direction of said disk-facing surface; a negative-pressure generating section generally surrounded by said first positive-pressure generating section and said second positive-pressure generating section and being recessed relative to said first and second positive-pressure generating sections; wherein between said downstream edge portion and each of said downstream side rail ends, said disk-facing surface is free of any positive-pressure generating section projecting upwardly from said disk-facing surface; and wherein said stepped portion has a step depth in a range of 5 nm to 100 nm.