GMR head design that suppresses tribocharge during its assembly
AssigneeHeadway Technologies, Inc.
InventorLi-Yan Zhu
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method for preventing electrostatic discharge (ESD) damage in the head-suspension assembly (HSA) construction process. The method includes the use of a novel GMR magnetic recording head on a conductive slider substrate, the GMR head being electrically connected to the substrate and its conducting leads having balanced resistances between the leads and the substrate. By establishing an electrical connection between the GMR head and the slider substrate, the entire HSA can be grounded during its construction. By also grounding any nearby conducting elements that could inadvertently contact the HSA or its parts, no accumulated tribocharges can discharge through the sensitive GMR sensor element.
Claims4
A GMR magnetic recording head comprising:
- a conductive substrate;
- an insulating undercoat formed on said substrate;
- a via formed through said undercoat;
- a resistive connection formed within said via contacting said substrate;
- an electrically conductive undershield formed on the undercoat, said undershield contacting said resistive connection and thereby making electrical contact with the substrate;
- a first insulating layer formed on said undershield;
- a GMR sensor element formed on said first insulating layer;
- conducting lead layers formed electrically contacting said sensor element;
- a second insulating layer formed on said sensor element and said conducting lead layer.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.