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US 7,008,550 B2Granted
Method for forming a read transducer by ion milling and chemical mechanical polishing to eliminate nonuniformity near the MR sensor
AssigneeHitachi Global Storage Technologies Netherlands B.V.
InventorsJui-Lung Li, Jyh-Shuey Lo
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Abstract
A method for forming a read transducer by ion milling and chemical mechanical polishing to eliminate nonuniformity near the MR sensor is disclosed. The resist mask is eliminated in the read transducer formation process so that the thickness of the layers near the read transducer has a uniform thickness.
Claims31
A method for forming a read transducer, comprising:
- forming, over a sensor, a first hard layer having a width for defining a width of the sensor;
- forming, on a first and second side of the sensor and hard layer, a hard bias layer having a height substantially equal to a height of the sensor;
- forming a lead layer over the hard layer and the hard bias layer;
- forming a second hard layer over the lead layer;
- forming, over the second hard layer, a top mask layer having an opening substantially equal to the width of the sensor;
- removing a portion of the second hard layer and a portion of the lead layer accessible through the opening in the top mask layer;
- removing the top mask layer;
- and
- shaping a remaining portion of the second hard layer and a remaining portion of the lead layer to a desired form.
6 more elements
A method for forming a read transducer, comprising:
- forming a sensor layer over a first gap layer;
- forming, over the sensor layer, a first hard layer;
- forming over the first hard layer a photoresist having a width equal to a desired width of a sensor;
- removing portions of the first hard layer and the sensor layer not blocked by the photoresist to form a sensor;
- removing the photoresist;
- forming a hard bias layer on a first and second side of remaining portions of the first hard layer and sensor layer;
- and
- processing a second hard layer, a lead layer and a masking layer formed over the hard bias layer and the remaining portions of the first hard layer and sensor layer using CMP polishing, ion etching and ion milling to prevent nonuniformity of layer thickness near the sensor.
5 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.