High-density electronic head

Abstract

A VLSI-compatible process for the manufacturing of a monolithic high-density electronic head in the form of a single composite IC chip for reading and/or writing multiple tracks of magnetically recordable information. The VLSI-compatible process comprises the steps of fabricating a digital signal process circuit as well as other desired circuit components on a substrate, then fabricating a plurality of read and/or write elements on the same substrate using a thin film technique. Because the silicon-based materials, which are used to replace the conventional magneto-resistant elements, show very little magneto-resistance effect at room temperature, a magnetically sensitive layer is provided which comprises a double-drain polycrystalline thin-films transistor (DTFT) to provide the required sensitivity. Furthermore, because no wire-bonding is required between the write or read head and the necessary circuitry components, IC chips providing very high density monolithic electronic heads can be manufactured using the VLSI-compatible process, and each of the chips contains a very large number, in the order of several hundred, of read and/or write elements, as well as the necessary and/or desired electronic circuits. A plurality of read/write elements can be assigned to a common track of data to improve the accuracy and sensitivity of data transmission, or each element can be assigned to a respective track of data.