Western Digital (fremont), Inc.

Headway Technologies, Incorporated

Yunfei Li

Zhigang Bai

Ming Jiang

Ge Yi

Michael V Morelli

Hongxing Yuan

Feng Q Liu

Ying Hong

Matthew R Gibbons

Zhong Shi

Kunliang Zhang

Po-Kang Wang

Chyu-Jiuh Torng

Masanori Sakai

Zhanjie Li

Kenichi Takano

Ming Sun

Shing Lee

Jinqiu Zhang

Hai Sun

Dujiang Wan

Guanghong Luo

Yanfeng Chen

Samuel Weisan Yuan

Lisha Wang

Lijie Zhao

Jerome S Marcelino

Lijie Guan

Yugang Wang

Tao Pan

Yunfei Ding

Brad Vaughn Johnson

Sergei L Sochava

Zhongyan Wang

Donghong Li

Danning Yang

Wentao Yan

Ming M Yang

Ronghui Zhou

Peng Luo

Ronald L Allen

Weimin Si

Lily Yao

Yunjun Tang

Xiaojun Zhang

Li He

El-Amine Salhi

Chengtao R Yu

Yana Qian

Paul E Anderson

Ran Lin

A magnetic apparatus has a media-facing surface (MFS), a pole, a write gap at the MFS, a trailing shield, coil(s) and a nonmagnetic refill material. The pole includes a pole tip proximate to the MFS. The trailing shield includes a pedestal and a recessed portion. The pedestal occupies a portion of the MFS. The recessed portion has a front surface at an acute angle from the MFS and is recessed from the MFS by a distance of not more than 0.8 micrometers. The write gap is between the pedestal and the pole tip. The coil(s) energize the pole and have at least one turn. The coil(s) are between the recessed portion of the trailing shield and the pole. The trailing shield is between the nonmagnetic refill material and the pole. A portion of the nonmagnetic refill material is between the recessed portion and the MFS.

Writer having a recessed trailing shield and nonmagnetic refill

A method provides a magnetic transducer having a media-facing surface (MFS). The method includes providing a pole, providing a side gap, providing coil(s) for energizing the pole and providing side shield(s). A portion of the pole resides at the MFS. The side gap is between the pole and the side shield(s). The side shield(s) have a gradient in a saturation magnetization such that the saturation magnetization increases in a yoke direction perpendicular to the MFS. The step of providing the side shield(s) further includes providing a nonmagnetic structure having a side surface parallel to the MFS and providing at least one side shield layer. A portion of the side shield layer(s) are on the side surface. The portion of the side shield layer(s) has the gradient in the saturation magnetization. At least part of the side shield being formed by the portion of the side shield layer(s).

Method for fabricating a magnetic writer having a gradient in saturation magnetization of the shields

A magnetic write apparatus has a media-facing surface (MFS), a pole, side shield(s), a side gap and coil(s) for energizing the pole. The pole includes main and assist portions. The main portion is ferromagnetic, includes a pole tip and includes side surface(s) having a flare angle from the MFS. The pole tip occupies a portion of the MFS. The flare angle is nonzero and acute. The assist portion adjoins the main portion, extends from the main portion in a direction having a component in a cross-track direction, and has a depth of not more than three hundred nanometers. The side shield(s) occupy another portion of the MFS, have a back surface, and are between the assist portion and the MFS. The assist portion is conformal with the back surface of the side shield(s). The side gap is between the main portion of the pole and the side shield(s).

Magnetic recording write apparatus having a pole including an assist portion extending in the cross-track direction

A method fabricates a heat assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) transducer having an air-bearing surface (ABS) and that is optically coupled with a laser. The method includes providing a waveguide for directing light from the laser toward the ABS and providing a write pole having a pole tip with an ABS location facing the surface. The pole tip is in a down track direction from the waveguide. The method also includes providing at least one shield including a shield pedestal. The shield pedestal is in the down track direction from the pole tip. At least one protective pad is provided adjacent to the write pole and between the ABS location and the shield pedestal.

Method for providing a heat assisted magnetic recording transducer having protective pads

A heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) transducer is coupled with a laser for providing energy and has an air-bearing surface (ABS) configured to reside in proximity to a media during use. The HAMR transducer includes a write pole, at least one coil, and an inverse tapered waveguide optically coupled with the laser. The write pole is configured to write to a region of the media. The coil(s) energize the write pole. The inverse tapered waveguide includes an entrance distal from the ABS, a bottom proximate to the ABS, a first side and a second side opposite to the first side. The first side and the second side diverging such that at least a portion of the inverse tapered waveguide between the bottom and the top is wider than the entrance.

Inverse tapered waveguide for use in a heat assisted magnetic recording head

A method for making an interferometric taper waveguide (I-TWG) with high critical dimension uniformity and small line edge roughness for a heat assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) head, wherein the method includes creating an I-TWG film stack with two hard mask layers on top of an I-TWG core layer sandwiched between two cladding layers, defining a photoresist pattern over the I-TWG film stack using deep ultraviolet lithography, transferring the pattern to the first hard mask layer using reactive ion etching (RIE), forming a temporary I-TWG pattern on the second hard mask layer using RIE, transferring the temporary pattern to the I-TWG core using RIE, refilling the cladding layer, and planarizing using chemical mechanical planarization (CMP).

Method to make interferometric taper waveguide for HAMR light delivery

A heat assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) write transducer has an air-bearing surface (ABS) configured to reside in proximity to a media during use and is coupled with a laser that provides energy. The HAMR transducer includes a main pole, at least one additional pole adjacent to the main pole in a down track direction, a waveguide and at least one coil for energizing the main pole. The main pole is configured to write to a region of the media and is recessed from the ABS by a first distance. The additional pole(s) are recessed from the ABS by a second distance greater than the first distance. The waveguide is optically coupled with the laser and directs a portion of the energy toward the ABS at an acute angle from the ABS. A portion of the waveguide resides between the additional pole(s) and the ABS.

Heat assisted magnetic recording writer having a recessed pole

A method and system for providing a touchdown sensor for use in disk drive is described. The touchdown sensor includes a seed layer, a sensor layer on the seed layer, and a capping layer. The sensor layer includes NiFe. In some embodiments, at least one of the seed layer and the capping layer promote stability and performance of the sensor layer.

Touchdown sensor having a more stable crystal structure for use in hard disk drives

Damascene processes using physical vapor deposition (PVD) sputter carbon film as a chemical mechanical planarization (CMP) stop layer for forming a magnetic recording head are provided. In one embodiment, one such process includes providing an insulator, removing a portion of the insulator to form a trench within the insulator, depositing a carbon material on first portions of the insulator using a physical vapor deposition process, disposing at least one ferromagnetic material on second portions of the insulator to form a pole including a portion of the ferromagnetic material within the trench, and performing a chemical mechanical planarization on the at least one ferromagnetic material using at least a portion of the carbon material as a stop for the chemical mechanical planarization.

Damascene process using PVD sputter carbon film as CMP stop layer for forming a magnetic recording head

Heat assisted magnetic recording transducers having a recessed pole

A method and system for fabricating magnetic transducer are described. The method and system include providing a main pole having a bottom and a top wider than the bottom. The method and system further include performing a high energy ion mill at an angle from a normal to the top of the main pole and at a first energy. The high energy ion mill removes a portion of the top of the main pole and exposes a top bevel surface for the main pole. The method and system also include performing a low energy ion mill at second energy and a glancing angle from the top bevel surface. The glancing angle is not more than fifteen degrees. The second energy is less than the first energy. The method and system also include depositing a nonmagnetic gap.

Method and system for providing a perpendicular magnetic recording transducer using a low energy mill

Embodiments of the present invention relate to reducing the size variation on a wafer fabrication. In some embodiments, at least a portion the backfill material over features larger than a threshold size is etched or milled to provide backfill protrusions over those features. The backfill protrusions are configured to reduce the size variation across the fabrication. Embodiments of the invention may be used in fabrication of many types of devices, such as tapered wave guides (TWG), near-field transducers (NFT), MEMS devices, EAMR optical devices, optical structures, bio-optical devices, micro-fluidic devices, and magnetic writers.

Process for CMP with large feature size variation

A method for providing waveguide structures for an energy assisted magnetic recording (EAMR) transducer is described. The waveguide structures have a plurality of widths. At least one waveguide layer is provided. Mask structure(s) corresponding to the waveguide structures and having a pattern are provided on the waveguide layer(s). The mask structure(s) include a planarization stop layer, a planarization assist layer on the planarization stop layer, and a hard mask layer on the planarization assist layer. The planarization assist layer has a low density. The pattern of the mask structure(s) is transferred to the waveguide layer(s). Optical material(s) that cover the waveguide layer(s) and a remaining portion of the mask structure(s) are provided. The optical material(s) have a density that is at least twice the low density of the planarization assist layer. The method also includes performing a planarization configured to remove at least a portion of the optical material(s).

Method and system for manufacturing tapered waveguide structures in an energy assisted magnetic recording head

A magnetic transducer having an air-bearing surface (ABS) is described. The magnetic transducer includes a pole and at least one coil for energizing the pole. The pole has a pole tip proximate to the ABS, a yoke distal from the ABS, and a bottom surface including a bottom bevel. At least the yoke includes at least one sidewall having a first angle and a second angle. The first angle is between the bottom surface and the at least one sidewall. The second angle is a constant distance along the at least one sidewall from the first angle.

Magnetic recording head having a dual sidewall angle

Systems and methods for increasing media absorption efficiency using interferometric waveguides in information storage devices are described. One such system for an interferometric waveguide assembly includes a light source, a first waveguide arm and a second waveguide arm, a splitter configured to receive light from the light source and to split the light into the first waveguide arm and the second waveguide arm, and a near field transducer (NFT) configured to receive the light from the first waveguide arm and the second waveguide arm, where the first waveguide arm and the second waveguide arm converge to form a preselected angle at a junction about opposite the splitter, and where the first waveguide arm and the second waveguide arm are configured to induce a preselected phase difference in the light arriving at the NFT.

Systems and methods for increasing media absorption efficiency using interferometric waveguides

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Fremont, CA, United States of America

Yunfei Li