Planarization of air bearing slider surfaces for reactive ion etching or ion milling

A process for reactive ion etching of air bearing sliders comprises the steps of:

• mechanically aligning a plurality of rows of unetched sliders on which magnetic transducers are deposited;
• positioning a layer of thermally conductive adhesive between said rows and a substrate;
• heating said adhesive through the substrate such that the adhesive bonds the rows to the substrate while encapsulating said rows of unetched sliders, so that the surfaces of said unetched sliders that are to be etched are planarized;
• applying a patterned photoresist to said surfaces of said unetched sliders and reactive ion etching exposed portions of said slider surfaces;
• stripping said photoresist and cutting said rows into individual sliders while said rows of sliders are still bonded to the substrate;
• and
• stripping said adhesive by exposure to an organic solvent;
• wherein said step of mechanically aligning said rows of sliders comprises aligning said slider rows against pins onto an alignment fixture.