Method of coil fabrication for thin-film magnetic recording heads using phase-shifting masks

Abstract

A method for fabricating a thin-film magnetic read/write head that eliminates contrast effects producing notching in a thin-film magnetic head coil caused by subsurface reflectivity at a reflective layer step during a photolithography step in the fabrication of the coil is provided. The method comprises the steps of forming a first permalloy yoke on a substrate, wherein the edges of the first yoke create steps from the top of the first yoke down to the substrate, forming a partial conformal layer of an electric insulation material over the first permalloy yoke and the substrate, forming a conformal copper seed layer over the electric insulation layer, forming a conductive coil on the electric insulation layer, wherein the copper coil is fabricated using a lithography process including placing a phase-shifting mask, formed in the image of the coil and containing non-printable openings covered by transparent material of a thickness that creates a 180.degree. phase-shift in illumination, over a photoresist layer, the phase-shifting mask creating illumination destructive interference in regions of the photoresist that are covered by the mask layer and immediately adjacent to regions of the photoresist not covered by the mask, forming a second electric insulation layer over the conductive coil, wherein the second electric insulation layer planarizes the coil topography, and forming a second permalloy yoke over the second electric insulation layer, wherein the second yoke is joined to the first yoke at a back gap but separated from the first yoke by a thin insulating layer at a recording gap.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.