Title
Schreck, Erhard oral history
Catalog Number
102792698
Type
Document
Description
Dr. Erhard Schreck is one of only a few experts in the field of hard disk drive (HDD) tribology. Tribology is the science of sliding bodies which usually involves friction, wear and lubrication. The reason why it's so critical to disk drive technology is because the magnetic head is riding and sometimes sliding very close to the spinning disk surface under extremely high velocity of close to 100 miles per hour. In the disk drive industry, tribology refers not only to the reliability of the device but also the push to lower and precisely control the head disk distance, also known as the flying height. Dr. Schreck holds over 100 published U.S. patents, and during his career, he has helped reduce this flying height from a few micrometers to just under one nanometer, which is about the length of just a few air molecules. He was a member of the team that implemented the revolutionary Thermal Fly Height Control (TFC), that has helped the industry achieve recording densities beyond the one terabit per square inch mark. This is a 500-million-fold increase in storage density from the first HDD, IBM’s RAMAC. This Oral History first delves on his childhood and education in Germany where he was involved in the early development of the Scanning Tunneling Microscope. His technical contributions and breakthroughs during his US career in the HDD industry are then discussed.
Date
2022-05-31
Contributor
|
Marchon, Bruno, Interviewer
|
|
Schreck, Erhard, Interviewee
|
Publisher
Computer History Museum
Place of Publication
Mountain View, CA
Format
PDF
Category
Transcription
Subject
Hard disk drives; tribology; head/disk interface; magnetic recording; Reliability; Fly Height Control
Collection Title
CHM Oral History Collection
