Head gimbal assembly with flex circuit arrangement between slider and head interconnect assembly

Abstract

A slider scale package assembly in a head gimbal assembly (HGA) for electrically coupling a slider/magnetic recording (MR) head to a head interconnect circuit in a disc drive includes a flex circuit attached to the back of the slider/MR head which turns the slider/MR head into the slider scale package with at least one repositioned interconnect pad disposed at the back of the slider/MR head. The flex circuit further includes a conductive material, one end of which is electrically bonded to a bond pad of the slider/MR head, and the other end is electrically bonded to a conductive material of the head interconnect circuit via the interconnect pad. A plurality of flex circuits can be made in a sheet format and dividable into a plurality of individual flex circuits to be attached to a plurality of slider/MR heads. The bonding of the conductive material of the flex circuit to the slider/MR head and the bonding of the interconnect pad of the flex circuit to the conductive material of the head interconnect circuit can be done in a separate automated process.