Method for reducing damage to sliders during lapping

A method of fabricating magnetic sensors comprising the steps of:

• depositing a stack of layers for a sensor on a wafer;
• fabricating left and right hard-bias/lead structures on left and right sides of a predetermined area for the sensor;
• forming a lapping gap by removing a selected portion of the hard-bias/lead structures in an area extending from an ABS plane toward a predetermined plane where lapping will be started;
• and
• refilling the lapping gap with a selected material.

A method of fabricating sliders for use in disk drives comprising the steps of:

• depositing a stack of layers for a sensor on a wafer;
• forming a lapping gap by removing a selected portion of the stack of layers for the sensor in an area extending from an ABS plane toward a predetermined plane where lapping will be started;
• refilling the lapping gap with a selected material;
• fabricating left and right hard-bias/lead structures on left and right sides of a predetermined area for the sensor;
• patterning a photoresist mask extending from at least the ABS plane over the left and right hard-bias/lead structures leaving at least a portion of the materials for the left and right hard-bias/lead structures extending below the ABS line exposed;
• and
• milling to thin or remove the exposed materials for the left and right hard-bias/lead structures extending below the ABS line.

A wafer with a plurality of magnetic heads comprising:

• a sensor;
• left and right hard-bias/lead structures on left and right sides of the sensor above an ABS line;
• and
• a lapping gap below the ABS line, the lapping gap extending along the left hard-bias/lead structure across the sensor and into the right hard-bias/lead structure, the lapping gap being filled with a selected material deposited in a trench formed in the sensor and left and right hard-bias/lead structures.

A wafer comprising:

• a stack of layers for a sensor on the wafer;
• left and right hard-bias/lead structures on left and right sides of the sensor above an ABS line with the materials for the left and right hard-bias/lead structures extending below the ABS line;
• and
• a photoresist mask extending from at least the ABS line over the left and right hard-bias/lead structures leaving at least a portion of the materials for the left and right hard-bias/lead structures extending below the ABS line exposed.