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:
Apr. 21, 2009
Filed:
May. 31, 2007
Yunxiao Gao, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Aron Pentek, San Jose, CA (US);
Alan J. Tam, San Jose, CA (US);
Sue Siyang Zhang, Saratoga, CA (US);
Yunxiao Gao, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Aron Pentek, San Jose, CA (US);
Alan J. Tam, San Jose, CA (US);
Sue Siyang Zhang, Saratoga, CA (US);
Hitachi Global Storage Technologies Netherlands B.V., Amsterdam, NL;
Abstract
A giant magnetoresistive (GMR) head is formed to include a recess in an overcoat layer that reduces stress on the poles. The process includes depositing a seed layer over the overcoat layer prior to plating a metal mask layer with an opening where the recess is to be formed, wet chemical etching the seed layer through the opening in the mask layer and performing an ion milling process to remove any remaining traces of the seed layer. With the seed layer completely removed, a trench having smooth sidewalls and bottom is etched in the overcast layer by a reactive ion etch (RIE) process. The saw that is used to separate the head elements in the wafer can be passed through the clean trench without contacting the overcoat layer, thereby avoiding the chipping and cracking that might otherwise result from the use of a silicon dioxide or silicon nitride overcoat layer.