Headway Technologies, Incorporated

Western Digital Technologies, Inc.

Seagate Technology Incorporated

Hgst Netherlands, B.v.

Youfeng Zheng

Kochan Ju

Simon H Liao

Jei-Wei Chang

Cheng Tzong Horng

Min Li

Zhigang Bai

Lijie Guan

Changqing Shi

Yaguang Wei

Terence T Lam

Venkatesh Chembrolu

Jian-Gang Zhu

Suping Song

Muhammad Asif Bashir

Michael Kuok San Ho

Xinjiang Shen

Koichi Terunuma

Quang Le

Kunliang Zhang

Kuok San Ho

Petrus Antonius Van Der Heijden

Guangli Liu

Supradeep Narayana

Li Tang

Ru-Ying Tong

Yue Liu

Thomas P Nolan

Jianhua Xue

Otto Voegeli

Connie C Liu

Hans Juergen Richter

Li-Lien Lee

Chao-Peng Chen

Weilu Hang Xu

Samuel Dacke Harkness

Shanghsien Alex Rou

Zhong (Stella) Wu

Jeiwei Chang

Ben Hu

Yong-Chang Feng

A magnetic head includes a main pole configured to serve as a first electrode, an upper pole containing a trailing magnetic shield configured to a serve as a second electrode, and an electrically conductive portion located in a trailing gap between the main pole and the trailing magnetic shield. The electrically conductive portion is not part of a spin torque oscillator stack, and the electrically conductive portion includes at least one electrically conductive, non-magnetic material layer. The main pole and the trailing magnetic shield are electrically shorted by the electrically conductive portion across the trailing gap between the main pole and the trailing magnetic shield such that an electrically conductive path is present between the main pole and the trailing magnetic shield through the electrically conductive portion.

Magnetic head with assisted magnetic recording comprising an electrically conductive, non-magnetic material

A magnetic head includes a main pole configured to serve as a first electrode, an upper pole containing a trailing magnetic shield configured to a serve as a second electrode, and an electrically conductive portion located in a trailing gap between the main pole and the trailing magnetic shield. The electrically conductive portion is not part of a spin torque oscillator stack, and the electrically conductive portion includes first and second electrically conductive, non-magnetic material layers. The spin torque oscillator stack is coupled to the first electrically conductive, non-magnetic material layer. The main pole and the trailing magnetic shield are electrically shorted by the electrically conductive portion across the trailing gap between the main pole and the trailing magnetic shield such that an electrically conductive path is present between the main pole and the trailing magnetic shield through the electrically conductive portion.

Magnetic head with assisted magnetic recording

Embodiments of the present disclosure generally relate to magnetic recording systems, and more particularly to a magnetic recording system with a current-assisted write head. The write head comprises a main pole, a trailing shield disposed above the main pole, a trailing gap disposed between the main pole and the trailing shield, a side shield surrounding three sides of the main pole, the side shield being in contact with and disposed below the trailing shield and the trailing gap, and a side gap disposed between the side shield and each of the three sides of the main pole. The side gap comprises a non-magnetic electrically-conducting material to dissipate heat away from the main pole, lowering the resistance and temperature rise due to heating. The trailing gap may further comprise a non-magnetic electrically-conducting material. The write head may have a two terminal or three terminal connection configuration.

Write heads having conducting side gap for directing current

Embodiments of the present disclosure generally relate to data storage devices, and more specifically, to storage devices employing an energy-assisted magnetic recording write head. The write head may comprise a main pole, a trailing shield, a conducting gap disposed between the main pole and the trailing shield, and one or more current blockers. The conducting gap may be conformal with the main pole. The one or more current blockers may be configured to direct the current from the main pole to the trailing shield through the conducting gap. The one or more current blockers may be further configured to recess the conducting gap away from the media facing surface. The one or more current blockers may be configured to direct the current away from a media facing surface of the write head.

Write heads configured to redirect current

Provided herein is an apparatus, including a magnetically soft underlayer (SUL); an interlayer stack overlying the SUL, wherein the interlayer stack comprises a seed layer of an fcc material; and a perpendicular magnetic recording layer overlying the interlayer stack, wherein a thickness of the SUL in combination with a distance of the SUL from the perpendicular recording layer is sufficient to orient a total magnetic field corresponding to a magnetic transducer head at an angle of about 45&#xb0;.

Apparatus comprising magnetically soft underlayer

A magnetic sensor having a novel pinning structure resulting in a greatly reduced gap spacing. The sensor has a magnetic free layer structure that extends to a first stripe height and a magnetic pinned layer structure that extends to a second stripe height that is longer than the first stripe high. A layer of anti-ferromagnetic material is formed over the pinned layer structure in the region beyond the first stripe height location. In this way, the antiferromagnetic layer is between the pinned layer and the second or upper shield and does not contribute to gap spacing.

Magnetic sensor having an extended pinned layer with stitched antiferromagnetic pinning layer

A magnetic read head that has improved pinned layer stability while also maintaining excellent free layer stability. The free layer has sides that define a trackwidth of the sensor and a back edge that defines a functional stripe height of the sensor. However, the pinned layer can extend significantly beyond both the width of the free layer and the back edge (e.g. stripe height) of the free layer. The sensor also has a soft magnetic bias structure that compensates for the reduced volume presented by the side extension of the pinned layer. The soft magnetic bias structure can be magnetically coupled with the trailing magnetic shield, either parallel coupled or anti-parallel coupled. In addition, all or a portion of the soft magnetic bias structure can be exchange coupled to a layer of anti-ferromagnetic material in order to improve the robustness of the soft magnetic bias structure.

Magnetic sensor with extended pinned layer and partial wrap around shield

A perpendicular magnetic recording medium comprises a non-magnetic substrate having a surface; and a plurality of overlying thin film layers forming a layer stack on the substrate surface, the layer stack including a magnetically hard perpendicular magnetic recording layer structure and an underlying soft magnetic underlayer (SUL), the SUL having a thickness of up to about 100 &#x212b;. Also disclosed is a data/information recording, storage, and retrieval system comprising the perpendicular magnetic recording medium and a single-pole magnetic transducer head including main and auxiliary poles positioned in spaced adjacency to an upper surface of the layer stack, the single-pole transducer head comprising a front shield adjacent the main pole.

Perpendicular magnetic recording media with thin soft magnetic underlayers and recording systems comprising same

The problem of increased edge sensitivity associated with the reduction of the spacing between bias magnets in a CPP head has been solved by limiting the width of the bias cancellation layer and by adding an extra layer of insulation to ensure that current through the device flows only through its central area, thereby minimizing its edge reading sensitivity.

Narrow track CPP head with bias cancellation

Process to manufacture narrow track CPP head with bias cancellation

The series resistance of a CPP read head having in-stack biasing has been reduced by stitching the AFM layer through a high conductance layer. Both the AFM and high conductance layers have significantly larger cross-sectional areas than the high conductance layer of prior art structures so the contribution, to the total resistance of the device, from the AFM layer as well as from spreading resistance at the stack-lead interface, is significantly reduced. The high conductance layer provides sufficient ferromagnetic coupling to enable the AFM to stabilize the in-stack bias layer. A process to manufacture the device is also described.

Stitching of AFM and channeling layers for in-stack biasing CPP

As track widths of magnetic read heads grow very small, conventional longitudinal bias stabilization has been found to no longer be suitable since the strong magnetostatic coupling at the track edges also pins the magnetization of the free layer. This problem has been overcome by extending the free layer so that it is no longer confined to the area immediately below the spacer or tunneling layer. A longitudinal bias layer immediately below the free layer is given a relatively weak magnetic exchange coupling field of about 200 Oe. Although there is strong exchange coupling between this and the free layer, the degree of pinning of the free layer is low so that the device's output signal is reduced by less than about 10%. A process for manufacturing both the CPP SV and a MTJ versions of the invention is described.

CPP and MTJ reader design with continuous exchange-coupled free layer

A method for fabricating a stitched CPP synthetic spin-valve sensor with in-stack stabilization of its free layer. The method can also be applied to the formation of a stitched tunneling magnetoresistive sensor. The free layer is strongly stabilized by magnetostatic coupling through the use of a longitudinal biasing formation that includes a ferromagnetic layer, denoted LBL, within the pillar portion of the sensor and a synthetic exchange coupled tri-layer within the stitched portion of the sensor. The tri-layer consists of two ferromagnetic layers, FMand FMseparated by a coupling layer and magnetized longitudinally in antiparallel directions. A criterion for the magnetic thicknesses of the layers: [t(LBL)+t(FM)]/t(FM)=70/90 angstroms of CoFe insures a strong exchange coupling. The magnetization of the tri-layer is done in a low field anneal that does not disturb the previous magnetization of the ferromagnetic free layer.

Fabrication method for an in-stack stabilized synthetic stitched CPP GMR head

Currently, in a process of manufacturing a top spin valve structure, the shield-to-shield separation of a spin valve head cannot be below about 800 &#x212b;, mainly due to sensor-to-lead shorting problems. This problem has now been overcome by inserting a high permeability, high resistivity, thin film shield on the top or bottom (or both) sides of the spin valve sensor. A permeability greater than about 500 is required together with a resistivity about 5 times greater than that of the free layer and an MT value for the thin film shield that is 4 times greater than that of the free layer.

Method of manufacturing integrated spin valve head

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San Jose, CA, United States of America

Youfeng Zheng