Thin film head with non-magnetic insulating layer surrounding upper magnetic pole piece

#1. Field of the Invention

#The present invention relates to a method of making a thin film magnetic head in general employed in a magnetic disk drive or a magnetic tape drive. In particular, the invention relates to a method of making a thin film magnetic head including a lower magnetic core layer, a gap or non-magnetic layer, and a narrower auxiliary upper magnetic pole designed to interpose the gap layer between the lower magnetic layer and itself.

#2. Description of the Prior Art

#The above and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description of the preferred embodiment in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein:

#FIG. 1 is a plan view illustrating the interior structure of a hard disk drive (HDD);

#FIG. 2 is an enlarged perspective view illustrating a specific example of a flying head slider;

#FIG. 1 illustrates the interior structure of a hard disk drive (HDD) 10 as an example of a magnetic storage apparatus. The HDD 10 includes an primary enclosure 11 incorporating one or more magnetic recording disks 13 mounted on a rotational shaft 12 and flying head sliders 14 opposed to the corresponding surfaces of the respective magnetic recording disks 13. The individual head slider 14 is fixed on the tip end of a carriage arm 16 capable of swinging about a support shaft 15. When magnetic binary data is written into or read out of the magnetic recording disk 13, an electromagnetic actuator 17 serves to drive the carriage arm 16 for swinging movement, so that the flying head slider 14 can be positioned right above a target recording track defined on the surface of the magnetic recording disk 13. A cover, not shown, is coupled to the primary enclosure 11 so as to define an airtight inner space between the primary enclosure 11 and itself.

#FIG. 2 illustrates the structure of the flying head slider 14 according to a specific example. The flying head slider 14 includes a slider body designed to define a medium-opposed or bottom surface 19 opposed to the surface of the magnetic recording disk 13. A pair of rails 20 is formed on the slider body so as to extend along the bottom surface 19. Air bearing surfaces are respectively defined on the top surfaces of the rails 20. The flying head slider 14 is designed to receive airflow 21 at the bottom surface 19, in particular, at the air bearing surfaces, during rotation of the magnetic recording disk 13. The flying head slider 14 is thus allowed to fly above the surface of the rotating magnetic recording disk 13. A head-containing layer 23 is coupled to the trailing or downstream end of the slider body. An electromagnetic transducer or read/write head element 22 is embedded within the head-containing layer 23, as described later in detail. In general, the slider body is made from Al2O3—TiC, and the head-containing layer is made from Al2O3.

#Referring to FIG. 3, a brief description will be made on the structure of the electromagnetic transducer 22 according to the present invention. The electromagnetic transducer 22 embedded in the head-containing layer 23 includes a read head element such as a magnetoresistive (MR) element 25 exposing its tip end at the bottom surface 19, and a write head element such as a thin film magnetic head element 26 likewise exposing its tip end at the bottom surface 19. The MR element 25 embedded within an Al2O3 layer 27 is interposed between lower and upper shield layers 28, 29 made from FeN, NiFe, or the like.