Hitachi Global Storage Technologies Netherlands B.v.

Shawn Marie Collier Hernandez

Arley Cleveland Marley

Wipul Jayasekara

Howard Gordon Zolla

Timothy James Minvielle

Christopher William Bergevin

Benjamin Lu Chen Wang

Built-in electrical test structures are measured for lead-to-lead shorting during the fabrication of MR elements on a wafer. The test structures are fabricated in the same fashion as the MR elements, however, the active sensor region or track width is omitted from the test structures. Thus, the left and right leads for each test structure are electrically isolated from each other in their 'track width' region. If there is lead-to-lead shorting on a test structure, then the left and right leads are electrically connected in the track width region. A simple resistance measurement between the left and right leads determines the extent of any lead shorting by giving a quantitative resistance value.

System and apparatus for electrically testing lead-to-lead shorting during magnetoresistive sensor fabrication

Wafer structures and associated methods of fabrication are described. The wafer structures are fabricated to have aerodynamic shapes. Even if the structures on the wafer are fragile, the aerodynamic shapes of the structures create less resistance to a fluid flow of a cleaning process, and are less likely to be damaged by the cleaning process. Also, the aerodynamic shape of the structures allows a fluid flow to be directed toward the wafer from a single angle to effectively clean the wafer.

Aerodynamic shapes for wafer structures to reduce damage caused by cleaning processes

System, method, and apparatus for electrically testing lead-to-lead shorting during magnetoresistive sensor fabrication

A method is presented for fabricating a read head having a read head sensor and a hard bias/lead layer which includes depositing a strip of sensor material in a sensor material region, and depositing strips of fast-milling dielectric material in first and second fast-milling dielectric material regions adjacent to the sensor material region. A protective layer and a layer of masking material is deposited on the strip of sensor material and the strips of fast-milling dielectric material to provide masked areas and exposed areas. A shaping source, such as an ion milling source, is provided which shapes the exposed areas. Hard bias/lead material is then deposited on the regions of sensor material and fast-milling dielectric material to form first and second leads and a cap on each of these regions. The cap of hard bias/lead material and the masking material is then removed from each of these regions.

Method to improve ability to perform CMP-assisted liftoff for trackwidth definition

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Gilroy, CA, United States of America

Shawn Marie Collier Hernandez