Read Rite Corporation

Seagate Technology Incorporated

Western Digital (Fremont), Inc.

Bill Crue

Yingjian Chen

Zhupei Shi

Ronald A Barr

Nurul Amin

Kyusik Sin

Sakhrat Khizroev

Robert Earl Rottmayer

Lien-Chang Wang

Dmitri Litvinov

Kenneth E Knapp

Mark David Thomas

Wenjie Chen

Zi-Wen Dong

Syed A Hossain

Renuka Apparao

Russel Stearns

Ningja Zhu

A perpendicular recording head for use with magnetic recording media includes an unusually thin main pole. The main pole is made by depositing magnetically permeable material on a nonmagnetic substrate. The main pole is then magnetically coupled with an opposing pole so that the deposited magnetically permeable material is oriented parallel to the recording head's direction of travel.

Perpendicular recording head with trackwidth defined by plating thickness

Data storage and retrieval apparatus with thin film read head having inset extra gap insulation layer and method of fabrication

The present invention provides a shared pole magnetic read/write head for achieving optimized erase band width and a method for fabricating same. It has been found that there exists a relationship between a quantity delta defined as the difference between the width of the first pole and the width of the second pole and the resultant erase band width. The method of the present invention optimizes the erase band width by adjusting the value of delta and results in a read/write head useful in circumstances where the servo does not require small erase bands such as those resulting from a self-aligned pole structure having equal widths. Additionally, the alignment of the second pole relative to the first pole is not of critical importance in the read/write head of the present invention, the first pole being wider than the second pole.

Shared pole magnetic read-write head for achieving optimized erase band width and method of fabricating the same

In a preferred embodiment, a thin film write head having upper and lower pole structures. In the preferred embodiment of the present invention, a middle coat insulation layer is located over a yoke of the lower pole structure and adjacent a pedestal pole tip of the lower pole structure. A trench is formed in the middle coat layer by etching part way into the middle coat layer. A conductor coil is formed on the middle coat so that a portion of the coil is located within the trench and a portion above the trench. Preferably, the middle coat is planarized and then etched using a resist mask to form the trench. With one method, the resist mask is removed after etching the trench, a conductor seed layer deposited, a resist mask formed on the seed layer, a conductor coil formed within the mask, and the seed layer etched after resist mask removal to electrically isolate the turns of the coil. In another method, after trench etching and resist mask removal, conductor material may be deposited on the middle coat and planarized to form the portion of the coil within the trench. With this method, additional conductor material is deposited on the conductor material in the trench using a resist mask to form the coil. The additional conductor material provided in the trench can significantly reduce the coil resistance without increasing stack height or yoke lengths to improve write head performance.

Thin film write having reduced resistance conductor coil partially recessed within middle coat insulation

The apparatus of the present invention is embodied in a magnetic field sensor having a magnetoresistive element, a magnetic bias layer for biasing the magnetoresistive element with a magnetic field, and an electrical insulator positioned between the magnetic bias layer and the magnetoresistive element. The insulator prevents the flow of electrical current between the magnetoresistive element and the magnetic bias layer and at least a portion of the insulator allows passage of the magnetic field from the magnetic bias layer to the magnetoresistive element such that the magnetoresistive element is biased. The method of the present invention is embodied in a method for fabricating a magnetic field sensor having the steps of forming a magnetoresistive element, forming a lower insulator with a main section and an end section over at least a portion of the magnetoresistive element, forming a magnetic bias layer over the main section of the lower insulator, and forming an upper insulator over the magnetic bias layer and over the end section of the lower insulator, such that the magnetic bias layer is electrically insulated from the magnetoresistive element.

Magnetoresistive sensor having hard biased current perpendicular to the plane sensor

A preferred embodiment provides a thin film write head having upper and lower pole structures each having pedestal pole tips formed with CoNiFe. The pedestal pole tips may have from about 60% to about 70% Co and from about 10% to about 15% Ni. The upper pole structure of the preferred embodiment has a laminated yoke portion having upper and lower layers. The lower layer is stitched to the pedestal pole tip of the upper pole structure and comprises FeXN, where X is selected from the group consisting of Rh, Ta, Hf, Al, Zr, Ti, Ru, Si, Cr, V, Si, Sr, Nb, Mo, Ru, and Pd. The upper layer comprises NiFe preferably having from about 15% to about 55% of Fe. It is preferred to define the lower layer of the yoke by etching FeXN material using the upper layer as a hard mask. In a preferred method and embodiment, the top surfaces of the conductor coil and the upper pedestal pole tip are planarized with an inorganic capping layer formed thereover to insulate the conductor coil from the yoke and to provide a low apex angle to form the yoke over.

Thin film write head for improved high speed and high density recording

Growing community of inventors

Pittsburgh, PA, United States of America

Bill Crue