The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Sep. 09, 2025
Filed:
Jul. 22, 2022
Western Digital Technologies, Inc., San Jose, CA (US);
Xianzhong Zeng, Saratoga, CA (US);
Yi Zheng, San Ramon, CA (US);
Ming Jiang, San Jose, CA (US);
Donald G. Allen, Morgan Hill, CA (US);
Western Digital Technologies, Inc., San Jose, CA (US);
Abstract
A write pole of a write head of a hard disk drive can be manufactured by forming a photoresist layer over a magnetic material layer located over a substrate, disposing a tri-tone lithographic mask over the photoresist layer, lithographically exposing the photoresist layer through the lithographic mask, developing the photoresist layer to form a patterned photoresist layer, and patterning the magnetic material layer into the write pole by removing portions of the magnetic material layer that are not covered by the photoresist layer. The tri-tone lithographic mask includes a patterned opaque material layer and a patterned partially-transparent material layer located over a transparent substrate. The patterned opaque material layer includes a uniform width region and a flare region. The patterned partially-transparent material layer includes a pair of partially-transparent strips extending adjacent to a respective edge of the patterned opaque material layer, and partially-transparent assist bars.