Method for manufacturing a write pole of a magnetic write head for magnetic data recording

A method for manufacturing a write head for perpendicular magnetic data recording, comprising:

• providing a substrate;
• depositing a magnetic write pole material;
• depositing a laminate hard mask structure over the magnetic write pole material, the laminated hard mask structure including a first alumina layer deposited on the write pole material, a RIEable material layer deposited on the first alumina layer, an end point detection layer deposited on the RIEable layer and a second alumina layer deposited on the end point detection layer;
• depositing an inorganic image transfer layer;
• forming a resist mask, configured to define a write pole;
• transferring the image of the resist mask onto the underlying image transfer layer and hard mask structure;
• performing an ion milling to remove portions of the magnetic write pole material that are not protected by the hard mask structure to form a write pole;
• depositing alumina by atomic layer deposition;
• performing a second ion milling to remove a portion of the alumina layer, the second ion milling being performed sufficiently to expose the inorganic image transfer layer;
• performing a reactive ion etching to remove the inorganic image transfer layer;
• performing a third ion milling to remove the second alumina layer of the hard mask structure, the third ion milling being terminated when the end point detection layer has been detected and removed;
• performing a second reactive ion etching sufficiently to remove the RIEable layer;
• depositing an electrically conductive seed layer;
• forming a mask structure having an opening configured to define a wrap-around trailing magnetic shield;
• and
• electroplating a magnetic material to form a wrap-around trailing magnetic shield.