INDUSTRY NEWS

Disk drive industry finally makes time to tackle microcontamination issue

Led by a 25-year veteran, the disk drive industry has launched an effort to finally establish a set of microcontamination standards. The International Disk Equipment and Materials Association (IDEMA) has formed a committee to tackle the subject, which the industry previously has not had time to specifically address.

At its inaugural meeting on October 24 of last year, IDEMA's new microcontamination committee identified 27 potential areas of concern, including test methodology, acceptable contamination levels, packaging issues, and airborne silicones. Attendees at the meeting winnowed down the list and established three subcommittees, each with its own separate charter. These groups will define terms, develop a test methodology standard, and share common failure problems. The subcommittees convened individually and were scheduled to make reports to the microcontamination committee at its next meeting in early December. Regular meetings of the committee are set to take place at IDEMA's quarterly standards confabs in Santa Clara, CA.

Don Rice, a contamination consultant based in Santa Barbara, CA, is the committee chairman. He believes that both drive manufacturers and suppliers have finally realized that they must make time to find solutions to their contamination problems despite the time crunch confronting everyone working in the industry.

"People who are working a 60-hour week don't have time to sit and palaver with you over the telephone," Rice notes. "The fact that some [people] are able to volunteer their time without a return other than psychological satisfaction is encouraging." The consultant says that he agreed to head up the all-volunteer corps in order "to give back what [the industry] has given to me over 25 years."

The industry, he continues, "is recognizing that microcontamination is a fairly common problem, and most companies don't have enough infrastructure to deal with all the problems that come up. Second, suppliers would like some level of coherence on the kinds of things that are being requested of them. There are four to six major hard-drive suppliers that all have their own idiosyncratic [needs]. If we can reduce six to eight test practices, for example, down to one, it basically saves everybody a little bit of time and money."

Suzanne Wynn, a communications specialist with IDEMA, notes that up until the formation of the new committee the trade association sponsored only four standards groups covering disk substrates, heads, equipment and automation, and test methods. "There had been talk during those meetings about the fact that this [issue] needed to be addressed. But because it encompassed all of those areas, people were a little perplexed about where to start."

Of the three subcommittees, Rice singles out the test methodology subgroup as "the cornerstone" of the standards effort and the one that will help the business save money. "They'll be the group that tries to get the industry to settle on things like outgassing—for example, how do you measure it? —and on defining test practices. In other words, how do you actually run the test?"

All three subcommittees distributed questionnaires at the Comdex trade show in Las Vegas in November in the hopes of eliciting additional input. Rice says he expects "subsequent progress in three to six months on the first three priority areas."

Interested parties may contact Rice, 805/682-6229; Wynn, 408/720-9352; or Mark Camenzind of Balazs Laboratory, 408/745-0600, ext. 116.

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