The State University of New York

Veeco Instruments Inc.

Jhon F Londono

Richard Joseph Gambino

Boris L Druz

Miriam Rafailovich

Shaoming Zhu

Kurt E Williams

Johnathan Sokolov

Danielle S Hines

A giant magnetoresistance (GMR) sensor is formed using a self organizing diblock copolymer as an etching mask. The diblock copolymer is deposited over a magnetic layer and is self organized into regions of two discrete thicknesses; higher thickness island regions separated by lower thickness valley regions. After the diblock layer is self organized, an etching of process is performed to remove the polymer material from the valley regions as well as the underlying magnetic material. After etching, a patterned magnetic thin film of submicron islands of magnetic material, preferably having a diameter in the single domain range, remain under the mesa region. The islands are interconnected by a non-magnetic, conductive layer with electrical contacts coupled thereto to complete the GMR sensor. When the sensor is not subjected to a magnetic field, the magnetic alignment of the islands is random, and electron scattering results in a high resistance state. When the sensor is magnetically saturated, the magnetic islands have a common magnetic alignment, resulting in reduced sensor resistance.

Magnetic field sensor and method of manufacturing same using a self-organizing polymer mask

A reactive ion beam etching method which employs an oxidizing agent in a plasma contained in an ion source to control carbonaceous deposit (e.g., polymer) formation within the ion source and on the substrate. During operation of an ion source, after operating the ion source with a plasma having a carbonaceous deposit forming species, a plasma containing an oxidizing agent (species) is generated within the ion source. Preferably, within the ion source a plasma is maintained essentially continuously between the time that the carbonaceous deposit forming species is present and the time that the oxidizing agent is present. A reactive ion beam extracted from an ion source containing a plasma having an oxidizing species may be impinged onto a sample substrate to remove (i.e., etch) any carbonaceous material deposits (e.g., polymers) formed on the sample, such as may be formed from previous reactive ion beam etching (RIBE) processing steps using an ion beam having species which may form carbonaceous (e.g., polymer) deposits on the sample substrate structure. Preferably, a reactive ion beam containing an oxidizing species is incident upon the sample at an angle which enhances the selectivity of the carbonaceous deposit (e.g., polymer) etching relative to other materials upon which the ion beam impinges. A thin film magnetic head is fabricated according to a pole trimming process which employs RIBE with an oxidizing species to remove any carbonaceous material (e.g., polymer) deposits formed during a previous fluorocarbon based RIBE step.

Reactive ion beam etching method and a thin film head fabricated using the method

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Mineola, NY, United States of America

Jhon F Londono