International Business Machines Corporation

Hitachi Global Storage Technologies Netherlands B.v.

Hitachi Global Storage Technologies

Frederick Hayes Dill

Robert Fontana

Jui-lung Li

Marie-Claire Cyrille

Ching Hwa Tsang

Hugo Alberto Emilio Santini

Richard Edward Matick

Daniel T Ling

Kuok San Ho

Stuart Stephen Parkin

Cherngye Hwang

Richard Hsiao

Scott Arthur MacDonald

Dennis Jay McBride

Mustafa Pinarbasi

Son Van Nguyen

Jeffrey Scott Lille

James Mac Freitag

Kim Yang Lee

Tsann Lin

Jordan Asher Katine

Chin-Long Chen

Wipul Jayasekara

Meng Ding

Patrick Rush Webb

Janusz S Wilczynski

Douglas S Goodman

Douglas Craig Bossen

Tsung Yuan Chen

Huey-Ming Tzeng

Amanda Baer

James Lamar Nix

Mu-Yue Hsiao

Eric James Lee

Satish Gupta

Ricky A Rand

George J Fan

Benjamin Lu Chen Wang

James Michael Mulligan

Richard A Toupin

Peter S Hauge

Wipul Pemsiri Jayaekara

Raymond E Tibbetts

Paul Vincent McCann

Tsann Linn

Jan P Hoekstra

Peter J Warter

An embodiment of the invention is a magnetic head with overlaid lead pads that contact the top surface of the sensor between the hardbias structures and do not contact the hardbias structures which are electrically insulated from direct contact with the sensor. The lead pad contact area on the top of the sensor is defined by sidewall deposition of a conductive material to form leads pads on a photoresist prior to formation of the remainder of the leads. The conductive material for the lead pads is deposited at a shallow angle to maximize the sidewall deposition on the photoresist, then ion-milled at a high angle to remove the conductive material from the field while leaving the sidewall material. An insulation layer is deposited on the lead material at a high angle, then milled at a shallow angle to remove insulation from the sidewall.

Method of fabricating a thin film magnetic sensor on a wafer

A method for milling a structure. A single- or multi-layer resist having no undercut is added to a surface of a structure to be milled, the surface to be milled defining a plane. A milling process, such as ion milling, is performed. The milling process includes milling the structure at high incidence and milling the structure at razing incidence. The milling process can be performed only once, or repeated multiple times. High incidence can be defined as about 65 to about 90 degrees from the plane of the surface being milled. Razing incidence can be defined as about 0 to about 30 degrees from the plane of the surface being milled.

Method of fabricating electronic component using resist structure with no undercut

A method of making a read sensor while protecting it from electrostatic discharge (ESD) damage involves forming a severable shunt during the formation of the read sensor. The method may include forming a resist layer over a plurality of read sensor layers; performing lithography with use of a mask to form the resist layer into a patterned resist which exposes left and right side regions over the read sensor layers as well as a shunt region; etching, with the patterned resist in place, to remove materials in the left and right side regions and in the shunt region; and depositing, with the patterned resist in place, left and right hard bias and lead layers in the left and right side regions, respectively, and in the shunt region for forming a severable shunt which electrically couples the left and right hard bias and lead layers together for ESD protection.

Method of making a read sensor while protecting it from electrostatic discharge (ESD) damage

A method for manufacturing a pole tip structure for a magnetic head is provided. An etch stop layer is initially deposited after which a transfer layer is deposited. Further deposited is at least one masking layer. Reactive ion etching is then performed to define a trench in at least the transfer layer. A pole tip layer is then deposited in the trench to define a pole tip structure flanked at least in part by the transfer layer. A surface of the transfer layer or etch stop layer then remains in co-planar relationship with a surface of the pole tip structure.

Planarized perpendicular pole tip system and method for manufacturing the same

A method is described which uses a CMP resistant metal layer to replace the upper dielectric layer in the track width definition phase of a TMR or CPP spin valve magnetic head. The metal which is selected to be resistant to the CMP process can be rhodium (Rh), platinum (Pt), chromium (Cr), vanadium (V), etc. The additional CMP resistance of the refill layer structure provides a much larger processing window which results in higher yields. A CPP head according to the invention has a metal layer according to the invention above the hard bias structures on the sides of the sensor which define the track width.

Method for fabricating a CPP magnetic transducer using CMP-assisted lift-off and a CMP-resistant metal layer

The present invention is a magnetic head having a helical induction coil and includes hard disk drive devices that utilize the magnetic head. The helical coil is fabricated around a magnetic pole yoke in a series of process steps that include a reactive ion etch (RIE) process step which is utilized to simultaneously form vertical interconnect vias and upper helical coil member trenches. Thereafter, in a single fabrication step, such as by electroplating, the vertical interconnect lines and the upper helical coil traces are created in a single fabrication step, such that they are integrally formed. The vertical interconnect lines provide an electrical connection between outer ends of previously formed lower helical coil traces and outer ends of the integrally formed upper helical coil traces, such that a helical coil is fabricated. In the preferred embodiment, the helical coil is composed of copper.

Magnetic head having write head with helical coil and method for fabrication thereof

A method is described which uses a CMP slurry with an abrasive of spherical particles to lift-off photoresist used in the patterning of the sensor for a magnetic transducer. The spherical particles, preferably less than 0.015 microns, are preferably silica, alumina, titania or zirconia with colloidal silica being preferred. An alternative method of fabricating a CPP sensor structure according to the invention deposits a dielectric or CMP resistant metal over the hard bias structure. The CMP-resistant metal is preferably selected from the group consisting of rhodium, chromium, vanadium and platinum. A CMP resistant mask deposited over the dielectric or CMP-resistant metal can include an optional adhesion layer such as tantalum followed by a DLC layer. The CMP-assisted lift-off of the photoresist and the excess materials is executed at this point. The photoresist used to protect the selected area of the sensor structure is lifted-off using the slurry.

Method for fabricating a magnetic transducer using a slurry with spherical particles for CMP-assisted photoresist lift-off

A read head has a bottom lead made of material that is relatively polish resistant and a top lead layer that polishes down more easily than the bottom layer. With this structure, when the layers are deposited and then polished down, the top layer recesses away from the sensor (and bottom lead layer) in a controlled fashion, providing an acceptable lead structure that reduces the mismatch between the read head physical read width and magnetic read width.

Magnetic read head with dual layer lead

A method and structure for a microelectronic device comprises a first film over a substrate, a first polish resistant layer over the first film, a second film over the first polish resistant layer, a second polish resistant layer over the second film, wherein the first and second polish resistant layers comprise diamond-like carbon. The first film comprises an electrically resistive material, while the second film comprises low resistance conductive material. The first film is an electrical resistor embodied as a magnetic read sensor. The electrically resistive material is sensitive to magnetic fields. The device further comprises a generally vertical junction between the first and second films and a dielectric film abutted to the electrically resistive material.

CMP assisted liftoff micropatterning

A magnetic head having a helical induction coil. The helical coil is fabricated around a magnetic pole yoke in a series of process steps that include a reactive ion etch (RIE) process step which is utilized to simultaneously form vertical interconnect vias and upper helical coil member trenches. Thereafter, in a single fabrication step, such as by electroplating, the vertical interconnect lines and the upper helical coil traces are created in a single fabrication step, such that they are integrally formed. The vertical interconnect lines provide an electrical connection between outer ends of previously formed lower helical coil traces and outer ends of the integrally formed upper helical coil traces, such that a helical coil is fabricated. In the preferred embodiment, the helical coil is composed of copper.

Magnetic head with lower coil traces connected to integrally formed vertical interconnects and upper coil traces through plural insulating layer arrangement

An apparatus and method of making is disclosed for a combination read/write head having improved topography. The disclosed read/write head combines a magnetoresistive (MR) read head with an inductive magnetic write head. The head is planarized at a second shield layer with a planarization layer such that pads and leads connecting the pads to the MR sensor and coil are on a planar surface of the planaritzation layer. This planarization layer allows first and second shield layers to be optimized for the MR sensor to be used and also separates the pads and leads from the substrate. The combination head has first and second shield layers formed on a substrate, the shield layers being separated by a read gap. A magnetoresistive (MR) sensor and MR leads are located in the read gap. The planarization layer is then formed on the substrate, surrounding the first and second shield layers creating a planar surface that is coplanar with a top surface of the second shield layer. A write gap layer is fabricated along with a pole piece. The pole piece being separated by the write gap layer at the ABS and connected to the second shield layer at a back gap that is recessed in the head from the ABS. An insulation layer and coil layer embedded in the insulation layer with the insulation layer and the coil layer being located between the second shield layer and the pole piece. Pads and leads are formed on the planarization layer, with the leads electrically connected to the MR sensor and the coil.

Combination inductive write head and magnetoresistive (MR) read head with improved topography

A magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) memory cell uses a biasing ferromagnetic layer in the MTJ stack of layers that is magnetostatically coupled with the free ferromagnetic layer in the MTJ stack to provide transverse and/or longitudinal bias fields to the free ferromagnetic layer. The MTJ is formed on an electrical lead on a substrate and is made up of a stack of layers. The layers in the MTJ stack are an antiferromagnetic layer, a fixed ferromagnetic layer exchange biased with the antiferromagnetic layer so that its magnetic moment cannot rotate in the presence of an applied magnetic field, an insulating tunnel barrier layer in contact with the fixed ferromagnetic layer, a free ferromagnetic layer in contact with the tunnel barrier layer and whose magnetic moment is free to rotate in the presence of an applied magnetic field, and whose moment, in the absence of any applied field, is generally either parallel or antiparallel to that of the fixed ferromagnetic layer, a biasing ferromagnetic layer that has its magnetic moment aligned generally in the plane of the MTJ, and a nonferromagnetic electrically conductive spacer layer separating the biasing ferromagnetic layer from the other layers in the stack. The self field or demagnetizing field from the biasing layer magnetostatically couples with the edges of the free layer so as to provide a transverse bias field, which results in a coherent rotation of the moment of the free layer, and/or a longitudinal bias field, which assures that the two states of the memory cell are equally stable with respect to magnetic field excursions.

Magnetic tunnel junction memory cell with in-stack biasing of the free

A magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) magnetoresistive (MR) read head has one fixed ferromagnetic layer and one sensing ferromagnetic layer on opposite sides of the tunnel barrier layer, and with a biasing ferromagnetic layer in the MTJ stack of layers that is magnetostatically coupled with the sensing ferromagnetic layer to provide either longitudinal bias or transverse bias or a combination of longitudinal and transverse bias fields to the sensing ferromagnetic layer. The magnetic tunnel junction in the MTJ MR head is formed on an electrical lead on a substrate and is made up of a stack of layers. The layers in the stack are an antiferromagnetic layer, a fixed ferromagnetic layer exchange biased with the antiferromagnetic layer so that its magnetic moment cannot rotate in the presence of an applied magnetic field, an insulating tunnel barrier layer in contact with the fixed ferromagnetic layer, a sensing ferromagnetic layer in contact with the tunnel barrier layer and whose magnetic moment is free to rotate in the presence of an applied magnetic field, a biasing ferromagnetic layer that has its magnetic moment aligned generally within the plane of the device and a nonmagnetic electrically conductive spacer layer separating the biasing ferromagnetic layer from the other layers in the stack. The self field or demagnetizing field from the biasing ferromagnetic layer magnetostatically couples with the edges of the sensing ferromagnetic layer to stabilize its magnetic moment, and, to linearize the output of the device. The electrically conductive spacer layer prevents direct ferromagnetic coupling between the biasing ferromagnetic layer and the other layers in the stack and allows sense current to flow perpendicularly through the layers in the MTJ stack.

Magnetic tunnel junction magnetoresistive sensor with in-stack biasing

A magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) magnetoresistive read head for a magnetic recording system has the MTJ device located between two spaced-apart magnetic shields. The magnetic shields, which allow the head to detect individual magnetic transitions from the magnetic recording medium without interference from neighboring transitions, also function as electrical leads for connection of the head to sense circuitry. Electrically conductive spacer layers are located at the top and bottom of the MTJ device and connect the MTJ device to the shields. The thickness of the spacer layers is selected to optimize the spacing between the shields, which is a parameter that controls the linear resolution of the data that can be read from the magnetic recording medium. To reduce the likelihood of electrical shorting between the shields if the shield-to-shield spacing is too small, each of the shields can have a pedestal region with the MTJ device located between the two pedestals, so that the shield-to-shield spacing outside the pedestal regions is greater than in the pedestal regions.

Shielded magnetic tunnel junction magnetoresistive read head

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South Salem, NY, United States of America

Frederick Hayes Dill