Magnetic write head with trailing shield throat pad
AssigneeHitachi Global Storage Technologies Netherlands B.V.
InventorTsung Chen
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method of fabricating a magnetic transducer is described which uses a trailing shield throat pad to set the trailing shield throat height. The trailing shield throat pad is used as a part of the structural form over which the material for the trailing shield is formed. The trailing shield throat pad is preferably made of a material which can selectively be removed from the gap layer with a selective etching process such as reactive-ion etching (RIE). The front edge of the trailing shield throat pad is used to define a peninsula on the trailing shield and thereby the throat of the trailing shield.
Claims20
A thin film magnetic recording head comprising:
- a main pole piece that extends to an air-bearing surface;
- a gap layer extending to the air-bearing surface, the gap layer being adjacent to the main pole piece;
- a trailing shield extending to the air-bearing surface and having a peninsula adjacent to the gap layer, the gap layer separating the peninsula from the main pole piece;
- and
- a trailing shield throat pad on the gap layer disposed behind the peninsula.
A method of fabricating a thin film magnetic recording head comprising the steps of:
- forming a main pole piece on a wafer;
- depositing a gap layer over the main pole piece;
- depositing a layer of selected material for a trailing shield throat pad over the gap layer, the selected material being different from a material of the gap layer;
- patterning a first photoresist pad over a selected area on the layer of selected material, the selected areas defining a trailing shield throat pad with a front edge disposed in a plane which is recessed from a predetermined plane for an air-bearing surface;
- removing the selected material exposed around the first photoresist pad to form the trailing shield throat pad from the selected material and to expose the gap layer between the trailing shield throat pad and the predetermined plane for the air-bearing surface;
- removing the first photoresist pad;
- patterning a second photoresist to form a void for a trailing shield, the void extending from a first side of the predetermined plane for the air-bearing surface beyond the front edge of the trailing shield throat pad;
- and
- depositing ferromagnetic material for the trailing shield into the void to form a peninsula on a portion of the trailing shield between the front edge of the trailing shield throat pad and the predetermined plane for the air-bearing surface.
A disk drive comprising:
- a disk with a thin film of ferromagnetic material;
- and
- a thin film magnetic recording head for writing magnetic transitions in the ferromagnetic material comprising:
- a main pole piece that extends to an air-bearing surface;
- a gap layer extending to the air-bearing surface, the gap layer being adjacent to the main pole piece;
- a trailing shield extending to the air-bearing surface and having a peninsula adjacent to the gap layer, the gap layer separating the peninsula from the main pole piece;
- and
- a trailing shield throat pad on the gap layer disposed behind the peninsula.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.