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:
Aug. 13, 1996
Filed:
Dec. 22, 1994
Randall T Kerth, San Jose, CA (US);
Douglas J Krajnovich, San Jose, CA (US);
Murlidhar V Kulkarni, San Jose, CA (US);
Wing P Leung, Arcadia, CA (US);
Andrew C Tam, Saratoga, CA (US);
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);
Abstract
A method is provided for making a high definition, high aspect ratio amorphous carbon element, such as a slider, which carries one or more magnetic heads in a disk drive. A special gaseous environment is provided during laser etching which results in virtually no redeposition of the etched material. The result is a carbon element which has good edge definition for establishing desirable flying characteristics of a slider. In a preferred embodiment the laser etching, which is preferably implemented by an excimer laser, is performed in an gaseous environment of oxygen saturated with water vapor at a pressure above ambient. Significant improvements were also realized with nitrogen saturated with water vapor at a pressure above ambient and steam at ambient pressure. High aspect ratios were achieved, namely slope angles of 50.degree. to 60.degree..