Headway Technologies, Incorporated

Seagate Technology Incorporated

Maxtor Corporation

Jianing Zhou

Min Li

B Ramamurthy Acharya

Gunn Choe

Ruhang Ding

E Noel Abarra

Min Zheng

Zhigang Bai

Kunliang Zhang

Moris Musa Dovek

Cherng-Chyi Han

Yan Wu

Tom Zhong

Jiun-Ting Lee

Cherng Chyi Han

Minghui Yu

Hiroshi Omine

Yoshitaka Sasaki

Hiroyuki Ito

Shigeki Tanemura

Hironori Araki

Hui-Chuan Wang

Xuhui Jin

Weihao Xu

Matteo Staffaroni

Dayu Zhou

Kenneth E Johnson

Geon Choe

Ya-An Yang

Systems and methods for controlling a critical dimension (CD) uniformity of a magnetic head device are described. A film stack that is part of a system for controlling a critical dimension (CD) uniformity of a magnetic head device can include a substrate, a magnetoresistive (MR) sensor layer, and a hard mask layer. The system can also include a first mask that defines critical shape patterns other than the CD. The hard mask layer can be patterned using the first mask. The system can also include a second mask that defines the CD. A mandrel pattern can be formed on the hard mask layer using the second mask.

System for controlling a critical dimension (CD) uniformity of a magnetic head device

Methods of critical dimension (CD) uniformity control for magnetic head devices are disclosed. In some embodiments, a method can include providing a film stack, the film stack including a substrate, a magnetoresistive (MR) sensor layer, and a hard mask layer, patterning the hard mask layer using a first mask that defines critical shape patterns other than the CD, forming a mandrel pattern using a second mask that defines the CD, and forming a sidewall spacer pattern on sidewalls of the mandrel pattern, and removing the mandrel pattern.

Method of ultra-fine critical dimension patterning for magnetic head devices

A thermally assisted magnetic recording head is disclosed having a spot size converter with at least one secondary waveguide adjoining a top or bottom surface of a primary waveguide. Each waveguide has tapered sides but the secondary waveguide is tapered at a greater angle over a shorter taper distance in order to couple propagated light into the primary waveguide before the front end of the taper. The secondary waveguide terminates in a ridge with a fixed width wof about 50-170 nm that is between the front end of the taper and the air bearing surface (ABS). The ridge enables transverse magnetic (TM) transmission mode efficiency above 90% even with a typical process misalignment in the cross-track and height directions. The primary waveguide has a front section with width wbetween an end of its tapered sides and the ABS where wis substantially larger than w

Thermal assisted magnetic recording spot-size converter with finite ridge width

A TMR (tunneling magnetoresistive) read sensor is formed in which a portion of the sensor stack containing the ferromagnetic free layer and the tunneling barrier layer is patterned to define a narrow trackwidth, but a synthetic antiferromagnetic pinning/pinned layer is left substantially unpatterned and extends in substantially as-deposited form beyond the lateral edges bounding the patterned portion. The narrow trackwidth of the patterned portion permits high resolution for densely recorded data. The larger pinning/pinned layer significantly improves magnetic stability and reduces thermal noise, while the method of formation eliminates possible ion beam etch (IBE) or reactive ion etch (RIE) damage to the edges of the pinning/pinned layer.

Reader sensor structure and its method of construction

A perpendicular recording medium having a perpendicular magnetic recording layer and a magnetically soft underlayer structure disposed beneath the recording layer. The soft underlayer structure includes at least first and second soft magnetic layers having different magnetic permeabilities to create a magnetic permeability gradient in the soft underlayer structure. One or more of the soft magnetic layers can be antiparallel coupled. The soft underlayer structure of the present invention having a magnetic permeability gradient advantageously leads to reduced adjacent track erasure (ATE) while maintaining good overwrite (OW) properties.

Magnetic recording medium for perpendicular magnetic recording

A two part ion beam etch sequence involving low energy (&#x3c;300 eV) is disclosed for fabricating a free layer width (FLW) as small as 20-25 nm in a MTJ element. A first etch process has one or more low incident angles and accounts for removal of 70% to 100% of the MTJ stack that is not covered by an overlying photoresist layer. The second etch process employs one or more high incident angles and a sweeping motion that is repeated during a plurality of cycles. Sidewall slope may be adjusted by varying the incident angle during either of the etch processes. FLW is about 30 nm less than an initial critical dimension in the photoresist layer while maintaining a MR ratio over 60% and low RA (resistance&#xd7;area) value of 1.0 ohm-&#x3bc;m.

Two step method to fabricate small dimension devices for magnetic recording applications

A perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR) head is fabricated with a pole tip shielded laterally by a graded side shield that is conformal to the shape of the pole tip at an upper portion of the shield but not conformal to the pole tip at a lower portion. The shield includes a trailing shield, that is conformal to the trailing edge of the pole tip and may include a leading edge shield that magnetically connects two bottom ends of the graded side shield.

Method of making a PMR writer with graded side shield

PMR writer with graded side shield

A magnetic head includes: a pole layer including a track width defining portion and a wide portion; and an accommodation layer disposed on a bottom forming layer and having a groove that accommodates the pole layer. The groove includes a first portion for accommodating at least part of the track width defining portion, and a second portion for accommodating at least part of the wide portion. A manufacturing method for the magnetic head includes the steps of: forming a groove defining layer on a nonmagnetic layer that is intended to later become the accommodation layer; forming a mask that covers an area of the nonmagnetic layer where to form the first portion of the groove; etching the nonmagnetic layer so that the second portion of the groove is formed in the nonmagnetic layer; removing the mask; and taper-etching the nonmagnetic layer so that the first portion of the groove is formed in the nonmagnetic layer and the groove is thereby completed.

Method of manufacturing magnetic head for perpendicular magnetic recording

A perpendicular recording medium having a perpendicular magnetic recording layer and a magnetically soft underlayer structure disposed beneath the recording layer. The soft underlayer structure includes at least first and second soft magnetic layers having different magnetic permeabilities to create a magnetic permeability gradient in the soft underlayer structure. One or more of the soft magnetic layers can be anti-parallel coupled. The soft underlayer structure of the present invention having a magnetic permeability gradient advantageously leads to reduced adjacent track erasure (ATE) while maintaining good overwrite (OW) properties.

An improved soft underlayer structure for perpendicular magnetic recording. The structure includes at least two soft underlayers separated by a non-magnetic spacer layer. The soft underlayer structure incorporates exchange coupling induced anisotropy for improved perpendicular magnetic recording properties, including an improved signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and reduced adjacent track erasure.

Soft magnetic underlayer with exchange coupling induced anisotropy for perpendicular magnetic recording media

The present invention is directed to a disk for information storage. The disk, in one embodiment, comprises a substrate , antiferromagnetically exchange coupled first and second ferromagnetic films and , a spacer film , and at least one buffer film located between the first and second ferromagnetic films. One or more of the following statements is true with respect to the buffer film : (i) the buffer film is paramagnetic; (ii) the buffer film is superparamagnetic at temperatures of about 50&deg; C. or less; and (iii) a lattice mismatch between the buffer film and at least one of the first and second ferromagnetic films and in contact with the buffer film is about 5% or less.

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Fremont, CA, United States of America

Jianing Zhou