Seagate Technology Incorporated

Mark Ostrowski

Michael C Kautzky

YongJun Zhao

Tong Zhao

Kaizhong Gao

Jie Zou

William Albert Challener

Lijuan Zou

Venkateswara R Inturi

Lien Lee

Mark Anthony Gubbins

Roger Lee Hipwell, Jr

Jie Gong

Marcus Benedict Mooney

Ibro Tabakovic

Michael James Hardy

Dongsung Hong

Declan Macken

Martin Giles Blaber

Andrew D Habermas

Tae-Woo Lee

Neil Zuckerman

Venkatram Venkatasamy

David Chris Seets

Roger L Hipwell

Francis A McGinnity

David Michael Grundman

David S Kuo

Kim Yang Lee

Chubing Peng

James Gary Wessel

Mark Thomas Kief

Bing K Yen

Amit Vasant Itagi

Yonghua Chen

Scott Eugene Olson

Jiaoming Qiu

Konstantin Nikolaev

Zhongyan Wang

Steven Carl Riemer

Hieu Lam

Xilin Peng

Stacey Christine Wakeham

Yifan Zhang

Eric Steck Freeman

Juren Ding

Shouxiang Hu

Chang Xie

Vankateswara Rao Inturi

Mike Allen Seigler

Jim Hennessey

Lisa M Hanson

A near-field transducer or heat sink is formed via a first process. The near-field transducer or heat sink is transfer-printed to a read/write head via a second process.

Transfer-printed near-field transducer and heat sink

Methods of forming near field transducers (NFTs) including electrodepositing a plasmonic material.

Near field transducers including electrodeposited plasmonic materials and methods of forming

Methods of forming a NFT the methods including forming a hard mask positioned over at least a portion of the rod, the hard mask including at least one layer; patterning a resist mask over the hard mask, the resist mask having an edge positioned over at least a portion of the rod; etching a portion of the hard mask to expose a back edge of the rod and to form a back edge of the hard mask, wherein the back edge of the rod is equivalent to the back edge of the peg; and wherein a forward portion of the rod which is the portion of the rod forward of the back edge is covered by the hard mask; forming a disc mask including a void configured to form a disc of a NFT, the disc mask being formed over at least a portion of the hard mask so that the exposed back edge of the rod is within the void configured to form the disc; etching an area exposed in the void of the disc mask to remove both a rear portion of the rod and the surrounding dielectric up to the back edge of the hard mask edge; depositing a disc material in the etched void, wherein the back edge of the hard mask defines the front edge of the disc and the back edge of the rod is in contact with the front edge of the disc; and polishing the deposited disc material to form a top surface substantially planar with the top of the forward rod portion.

Near field transducers (NFTS) and methods of making

A waveguide a core extending along a light propagation and a coupling layer adjacent one side of the core along the light propagation direction. A gradient index material is adjacent to at least one side of the coupling layer. The gradient index material has a first refractive index proximate the coupling layer and a second refractive index away from the coupling layer. The gradient index material is configured to direct light from an input facet to the core layer.

Waveguide with gradient index material adjacent input coupler

A mounting surface of a read/write head is prepared to receive an epitaxial layer. The mounting surface is proximate a waveguide of the read/write head, and the waveguide is configured to receive an optical output from the epitaxial layer. The epitaxial layer is transfer printed on to the mounting surface. The mounting surface maintains a vertical alignment between the optical output and the waveguide. The epitaxial layer is processed to form a laser integrated with the read/write head.

Transfer printing an epitaxial layer to a read/write head to form an integral laser

A method of making a transducer head disclosed herein includes depositing a spacer layer on an NFT layer of the transducer head, forming an etch stop layer on a spacer layer of a transducer, depositing a cladding layer on the etch stop layer, and milling the cladding layer at a sloped angle such that the milling stops at the etch stop layer.

Method of making a transducer head

The disclosed methods enable the production of plasmonic near-field transducers that are useful in heat-assisted magnetic recording. The plasmonic near-field transducers have an enlarged region and a peg region. The peg region includes a peg region in proximity to an air-bearing surface above a recording medium and also includes a flared region between and in contact with the enlarged region and the peg region. The flared region can act as a heat sink and can lower the thermal resistance of the peg portion of the near-field transducer, thus reducing its temperature.

Methods of making a near field transducer with a flare peg

An electrical lapping guide has a body with a thickness along a wafer axis, the body comprising a layer of conductive material having a resistivity. The conductive material layer comprises a first contact region and a second contact region, the first and second contact regions configured to electrically connect the electrical lapping guide to electrical leads. A lapping edge comprises an air-bearing plane axis perpendicular to a lapping axis, and a back edge opposite the lapping edge, the back edge comprising a plurality of notches.

Apparatus including electrical lapping guide and methods of using the same

A method fabricating a near field transducer for a heat assisted magnetic recording head including forming a peg region of a near field transducer along a first portion of a substrate of a heat assisted magnetic recording head, removing a first portion of the peg region, fabricating a barrier material along a surface of the peg region created by the removal of the first portion of the peg region; and forming an enlarged region adjacent the surface such that the barrier material is disposed at least between the surface of the peg region and the enlarged region.

Near field transducer with isolated peg

Embodiments are directed to an apparatus having an air-bearing surface that is configured to interact with magnetic medium. The apparatus includes a waveguide and a plasmonic near-field transducer positioned at or near the air-bearing surface. The plasmonic near-field transducer is operatively coupled to the waveguide. The plasmonic near-field transducer includes an enlarged region and a peg region. The peg region extends from the enlarged region towards the air-bearing surface. The peg region has at least a portion of a periphery of its cross-sectional shape include curvature or at least one substantially obtuse angle.

Near-field transducer with rounded or obtuse corners

An apparatus including a near field transducer positioned adjacent to an air bearing surface, the near field transducer comprising silver (Ag) and at least one other element or compound; a first magnetic pole; and a heat sink positioned between the first magnetic pole and the near field transducer, wherein the heat sink includes: rhodium (Rh) or an alloy thereof; ruthenium (Ru) or an alloy thereof; titanium (Ti) or an alloy thereof; tantalum (Ta) or an alloy thereof; tungsten (W) or an alloy thereof; borides; nitrides; transition metal oxides; or palladium (Pd) or an alloy thereof.

Recording head including NFT and heatsink

Growing community of inventors

Lakeville, MN, United States of America

Mark Ostrowski