A head gimbal assembly that includes a bleed resistor applied over a specified
area of the reader, writer and ground leads in order to protect from ESD damage
is disclosed. The present invention address the need for an ESD protection system
that includes a consistent and secure connection with leads, that does not contaminate
the drive environment and applies a consistent resistivity to both the reader and
writer element by providing a head gimbal assembly with strategically placed bleed
resistors that will protect the read element from transient charge produced any
time during the fabrication, assembly, testing and shipment of the disc drive.
