JP2000005938A - Manufacture of magnetic head and ion polishing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a magnetic head manufacturing method capable of preventing corrosion of magnetic head elements on the levitating surface of a magnetic head, reducing machining level difference, and controlling the element height to high accuracy. SOLUTION: A block 122 in the shape of a plurality of magnetic heads connected together is formed. A thin film resistor is formed adjacent to the magnetic head elements. As the work of shaving the levitating surface of the block 122 by irradiating it with an ion beam is carried out, the resistance value of the thin film resistor is detected whereby the amount of machining of the floating surface is monitored from the resistance value. The magnetic heads are sequentially covered with a shutter 152 from the ones near which the resistance value of be thin film resistor has reached a predetermined value, and machining is stopped in sequence. The block 122 is cut at the boundary between the magnetic heads constituting the block and is thereby divided into the individual magnetic heads.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a magnetic head for a magnetic disk drive, which manufactures a magnetic head having an inductive head element and a magnetoresistive head (hereinafter referred to as "MR head"). About the method.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A magnetic disk drive generally has a structure in which a magnetic head 1 is supported by a support spring 4 on a magnetic disk 5 as a recording medium, as shown in FIG. When the magnetic disk 5 is rotated, the flying surface 3 of the magnetic head 1 flies above the magnetic disk 5. In this state, the driving device 6
The magnetic head 1 performs writing and reading of magnetic recording while moving the magnetic head 1 to a predetermined track on the magnetic disk 5. An inductive head 2 is mounted on the magnetic head 1 as a write head, and a magnetoresistive effect type (Magn) is used as a read head.
eto-Resistive (MR) head 14 or Giant-Magneto-
A resistive (GMR) head is mounted (FIG. 2). The inductive head 2 and the MR head 14 are provided with a protective film 10 on the side surface of the substrate 9 of the magnetic head 1.
And the shield film 13 and the like.

The flying height 7 of the magnetic head 1 is the distance between the inductive head 2 and the MR head 14 and the magnetic disk 5 as shown in FIG. Generally, a magnetic disk 5
The upper recording bit length is proportional to the flying height 7 of the magnetic head, as shown in FIG. 3, and as the flying height 7 increases, the recording density decreases. For example, in the case of a general magnetic head 1 having a relationship as shown in FIG. 3, if the flying height increases by 10 nm, the bit length increases by 50 nm. Therefore, it is required to reduce the flying height 7 of the magnetic head as much as possible in order to improve the recording density. At present, the flying height 7 is said to be about 40 to 50 nm as described in the document "Nikkei Mechanical" 5/27, No. 481 (1996).

On the other hand, the dimension of the MR head 14 in the depth direction from the flying surface 3 is called an MR element height 15 and strongly affects the recording / reproducing characteristics. Moreover, the MR element height 15 is
With the improvement in the areal recording density of the magnetic disk device, it is becoming smaller. Therefore, a method of manufacturing the magnetic head 1 capable of processing the MR element height 1 to a desired size with high accuracy is desired.

FIG. 1 shows a conventional method of manufacturing a thin film magnetic head.
This will be briefly described with reference to FIG. First, a number of inductive heads 2, MR heads 14, protective films 10, and the like having the layer configuration shown in FIG.
Thereafter, the wafer-like substrates 9 are cut out one by one along the arrangement to obtain a block called a row bar in a state in which the plurality of heads 1 are connected (step 1302). After polishing both surfaces of the row bar (step 1303), the surface serving as the floating surface 3 is precisely polished to regulate the MR element height 15 (step 1304). Further, the substrate 9
After a taper 101 having a desired shape is formed on a part of the floating surface 3 of the substrate 9, a slider rail 124 is formed on the floating surface 3 of the substrate 9 while keeping the row bar (Step 1306). Finally, the row bar is cut and divided into individual magnetic heads 1 (step 1307).

In such a manufacturing process, the height of the MR element 15 is determined by polishing the air bearing surface 3 in step 1304. In this polishing, a water-soluble or oil-based slurry 17 containing abrasive grains such as diamond is dropped on a rotating soft metal platen 16 as shown in FIG. The floating surface 3 is pressed and slid. At the time of the pressing and sliding, the floating surface 3 is processed by the abrasive grains embedded in the surface plate 16 or the rolling abrasive particles rolling between the surface plate and the head. JP-A-2-9557
In Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2 (Kokai) No. 2, a plurality of magnetic heads
In order to process each MR element height 15 to a desired size, the polishing jig 18 is deformed during this polishing,
By controlling the bending and tilt of the element in the rover,
There has been proposed a processing method of pressing a portion of the row bar where the polishing amount is to be increased against the surface plate 16.

[0007]

However, in the conventional processing of the air bearing surface 3 by polishing, a slurry 17 in which fine abrasive grains such as diamond are mixed with a water-soluble or oil-based dispersant is used. There is a problem that scratches are caused by the abrasive grains and a damaged layer is formed on the surface of the floating surface 3. Further, after the polishing process, a cleaning step using a cleaning liquid is essential. In addition, since various additives are included in the dispersant and the cleaning liquid of the slurry 17 in consideration of the dispersibility and cleaning property of the abrasive grains, the dispersant and the cleaning liquid of the slurry 17 And cause a corrosion reaction to the MR head and the GMR head, which is a serious problem in processing a highly reliable head. Further, in the method using such abrasive grains, even fine abrasive grains have a particle size of 1/10 to 1/20 μm, and there is a limit to miniaturization of a processing unit.

The processing method described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2-95572 attempts to control the polishing amount of each magnetic head constituting the row bar, but the polishing amount that can be controlled by this method is limited. Therefore, the variation in the element height 15 could not be reduced to a certain value or less. In addition, this processing method is susceptible to the shape accuracy of the bending and undulation of the row bar generated by a step before this step. In addition, since the air-bearing surface polishing step by this method causes further bending and undulation of the row bar,
It is necessary to perform high-precision processing in response to the bending and undulation of the rover throughout the process, which causes a problem that the manufacturing cost is increased.

On the other hand, since the magnetic head 1 is generally a composite of a plurality of materials, there is a problem that a polishing step causes a processing step. That is, generally, the substrate 9 is made of alumina titanium carbide, the protective film 10 is made of alumina, and the upper magnetic film 11 and the lower magnetic film (also used as the upper shield film) 12 of the inductive head 2 and the lower shield film 13 are made of Permalloy. Made of a soft magnetic metal such as
These hardnesses are as follows:
kgf / mm ^2, alumina 1000 kgf / mm ^2, Permalloy is 200 kgf / mm ^2. For this reason, when the air bearing surface 3 is polished, the soft inductive head 2 is softened due to a difference in polishing efficiency caused by a difference in hardness of each material.
And the portion of the MR head 14 is recessed with respect to the substrate 9, resulting in a processing step 8 as shown in FIG. When the processing step 8 occurs, the effective flying height of the magnetic head 1 increases, which causes a reduction in the recording / reproducing characteristics of the thin-film magnetic head.
For this reason, the processing step 8 is required to be as small as possible.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a method of manufacturing a magnetic head capable of preventing corrosion of a magnetic head element on a floating surface of a magnetic head, reducing a processing step, and controlling the element height with high accuracy. I do.

[0011]

According to the present invention, there is provided the following method of manufacturing a magnetic head.

That is, a method of manufacturing a magnetic head having a substrate and a thin-film magnetic head element disposed on the substrate, comprising: a plurality of thin-film magnetic head elements; After the body is formed so as to be arranged adjacent to each other, the substrate is cut out in a predetermined direction along the arrangement to form a block in which the plurality of magnetic heads are connected in a line at the substrate portion. A first step of irradiating an ion beam on a surface of the block that is to be the air bearing surface of the magnetic head to detect the resistance values of the plurality of thin film resistors while shaving the air bearing surface. The second step of monitoring the processing amount of the air bearing surface with the resistance value, and the resistance value of the adjacent thin film resistor of the magnetic head has reached a predetermined value. Turn, covered with a shutter from the,
A third step of sequentially stopping the processing, and a fourth step of dividing the block into individual magnetic heads by cutting the blocks at boundaries of the magnetic heads constituting the blocks. This is a method for manufacturing a magnetic head.

[0013]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, a method for manufacturing a thin-film magnetic head according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described.

The structure of the thin-film magnetic head manufactured in this embodiment is the same as that of the conventional thin-film magnetic head shown in FIGS. That is, on the side surface of the substrate 9,
Lower protective film 10, lower shield film 13, MR head 1
4. Inductive head 2 and upper protective film 10 are stacked. The inductive head 2 includes an upper magnetic film 11
And a lower magnetic film 12 and a coil. The lower magnetic film 12 also serves as an upper shield film between the lower magnetic film 12 and the MR head 14. The end faces of these laminated films and the main plane of the substrate 9 constitute the floating surface 3. A rail 124 and a taper 101 are formed on the floating surface of the substrate 9 to control the floating characteristics.

Next, a manufacturing method of the present embodiment for manufacturing such a thin film magnetic head will be described.

First, the inductive head 2, the MR head 14, the protective film 10 and the like having the layer structure shown in FIG. 2 are arranged on the wafer-like substrate 9 by the steps of film formation and photolithography. To form a large number (step 1301). During the film forming and photolithography steps, the resistance detecting elements 141 used as sensors in the subsequent ion polishing step 1311 are alternately arranged with the inductive head 2 and the like. Thereafter, a block called a row bar 122 in a state in which a plurality of heads 1 are connected is obtained by cutting the wafer-shaped substrate 9 line by line (step 1302). The resistance detecting element 141 includes a thin-film resistor 145 and a pad 146 for flowing a current through the thin-film resistor 145. This thin film resistor 14
5 is arranged so as to face the floating surface 3 of the row bar 122, and the resistance detecting element 141 is formed in step 1301.

Next, in order to remove the cutting distortion generated in the row bar by the cutting in the previous step 1302, the row bar 1 is removed.
22 are polished on both sides (step 1303). Thereafter, in this embodiment, the step of polishing the flying surface 3 is performed by ion polishing (step 1311).

The ion polishing step 1311 will be described in detail. In the ion polishing step, an ion polishing apparatus as shown in FIG. 6 is used. This ion polishing apparatus includes an ion source 700, a vacuum exhaust device 606,
Vacuum container 60 equipped with load lock mechanism 607
8 The ion source 700 includes a microwave generator 6
01, an ECR having a waveguide 610, a magnetic field generator 602, a gas introduction mechanism 604, and an ion extraction electrode 603
It is a system type ion source. The microwave generated by the microwave generator 601 interacts with the magnetic field of the magnetic field generator 602 to generate electron cyclotron resonance (Electron Cyclotron resonance).
Resonance) to generate plasma. The ion extraction electrode 603 extracts the ion beam 21 from the plasma.

A support mechanism 609 for mounting the row bar holder 22 (FIG. 7) is provided inside the vacuum vessel 608. The row bar 122 is held by the row bar holder 22. The support mechanism 609 includes the ion source 7
A tilt mechanism for tilting the row bar holder 22 at an arbitrary angle with respect to the ion beam 21 emitted from the laser beam 00 is provided. The support mechanism 609 includes a rover 122
The cooling mechanism 605 for cooling the cooling device is attached.

The configuration of the row bar holder 22 will be described.
The rover holder 22, as shown in FIGS.
A plurality of groove-shaped trays 151 for mounting the row bars 122 are provided. The row bar 122 is mounted on the tray 151 with the floating surface 3 facing upward. Tray 1
51, the resistance detection element 141 of the row bar 122 is provided.
The probe 153 is arranged at a position corresponding to.
When the row bar 122 is mounted on the tray 151, the probe 153 is moved by the elasticity of a spring (not shown),
It is pressed against 41 pads 146. Further, a shutter 152 for covering the upper surface of the mounted row bar 122 is disposed on the upper surface of the row bar holder 22.
In FIG. 15, one shutter 152 is arranged for each magnetic head 1 constituting the row bar 122. The row bar holder 22 has a built-in drive mechanism for individually opening and closing the shutters 152. Since the size of the shutter 152 is substantially the same as the size of the magnetic head 1 constituting the row bar 122, the size of the shutter 152 is as small as several mm square. For this reason, the row bar holder 22 is manufactured by etching a silicon wafer. The drive mechanism uses a fine motor or the like built in a silicon wafer by a micromachining technique.

A terminal connected to the probe 153 and a terminal for inputting a drive signal to the drive mechanism are arranged on the back surface of the row bar holder 22. Support mechanism 609
Terminals corresponding to these terminals are provided on the upper surface of the device, and these terminals are connected by attaching the row bar holder 22 to the support mechanism 609. The terminal of the support mechanism 609 is connected to the external control device 23. The control device 23 detects the resistance of the resistance detection element 141 and outputs a driving signal for causing the driving mechanism to open and close the shutter. The control device 23 outputs the resistance value of the resistance detection element 141 and the open / close state of the shutter 152 to the outside via the output device 24.

Next, a method for ion polishing the floating surface 3 of the row bar 122 using the ion polishing apparatus shown in FIG. 6 will be described.

First, outside the vacuum vessel 608, a plurality of row bars 122 are placed on the row bar holder 22 on the floating surface 3.
Is installed so that it faces the top. At the same time, the probe 153
To the respective resistance detection elements 141 of the row bar 122. At this time, all the shutters 152 are kept open.

The row bar holder 22 on which the row bar 122 is set is inserted into the vacuum vessel 608 via the load lock mechanism 607 and attached to the support mechanism 609. Then, the support mechanism 609 is inclined to set the ion beam 21 at a desired incident angle θ with respect to the normal to the air bearing surface 3 of the row bar 122. Further, the row bar 122 is cooled to a desired temperature by the substrate cooling mechanism 605, and the vacuum vessel 6 is
08 is evacuated. In this state, the reaction gas 604 is supplied, the ion source 700 is operated, and the ion beam 2 is supplied.
1 is pulled out and irradiated on the row bar 122. The flying surface 3 is scraped off by the collision of the ion beam 21,
Is polished. At this time, since the thin film resistor 145 of the resistance detecting element 141 located on the floating surface 3 is also scraped off, the resistance value of the thin film resistor 145 increases with the progress of polishing.

The control device 23 supplies a minute current to each resistance detecting element 141 via the support mechanism 609 and the probe 153 to detect the resistance value. When the resistance value reaches a predetermined constant value, it can be considered that the magnetic head 1 adjacent to the resistance detection element 141 has been polished by a desired amount, and the control device 23 outputs a drive signal to the drive mechanism. Then, only the shutter 152 on the magnetic head 1 is closed (FIG. 8). Since the other shutters 152 are still open, the ion polishing proceeds. As described above, when the output of the resistance detection element 141 reaches a desired value,
By sequentially closing the shutters 152, the polishing amounts of the magnetic heads 1 can be individually controlled, and the polishing amounts of all the magnetic heads can be set to desired values. All shutters 1
If 52 is closed, it means that polishing of all the magnetic heads 1 constituting the row bar 122 has been completed, so that the ion polishing is terminated, the row bar holder 22 is taken out from the load lock mechanism 607, and the row bar is removed from the row bar holder 22. Remove.

The ion polishing method has an advantage that the shape accuracy of the row bar 122 is not affected as compared with the conventional method of correcting the bending and variation of elements in the row bar during polishing using abrasive grains. In addition, since the polishing can be performed while individually monitoring the polishing amount of the floating surface 3 of each magnetic head 1, the polishing amount can be individually controlled. Therefore,
The MR element height 15 of each magnetic head can be set to a value within a desired range with high accuracy.

As the specific conditions of the ion polishing, in the present embodiment, Ar is used as the gas 604, the acceleration voltage of the ion beam 21 is 800 V, the ion current density is 0.5 mA / cm ² , and the degree of vacuum is 2 ×. Processing was performed at 10 ^-4 Torr. As a result, in the conventional method, 3σ
MR element height 15 which was ± 0.2 to 0.3 μm
In this embodiment, the precision of the air bearing surface 3 is ± 0.1 μm, and the flying surface 3 can be processed with high precision.

In order to reduce the flying height of the magnetic head 1, it is necessary to reduce the surface roughness and the processing step 8 of the flying surface 3 as much as possible. For this purpose, first, in the ion polishing step 1311 of the present embodiment, the incident angle (θ) 2
The relationship between No. 5 and the ion polishing speed of each material constituting the head 1 was examined. The result is shown in FIG. As can be seen from FIG. 9, when the incident angle (θ) 25 of the ion beam 21 with respect to the row bar 122 is set to 80 degrees or more, the substrate 9 made of alumina titanium carbide, the protective film 10 made of alumina, and the magnetic films 11 and 12 made of permalloy are used. The difference in processing speed is reduced. Therefore, the processing step 8 (the inductive head 2 and M
The average of the height of the air bearing surface 3 at the portion of the R head 14 and the substrate 9
The difference between the height of the air bearing surface 3 and the height of the air bearing surface 3 was measured using an atomic force microscope. As shown in FIG. 11, when the ion incident angle was 80 degrees or more, the value of the processing step 8 was an absolute value. It was found to be 2 nm or less, and a smooth surface could be obtained as a whole of the flying surface 3.

Further, when the surface roughness of each material at this time was examined, as shown in FIG. 10, the substrate 9 of alumina titanium carbide had an Rmax of 5 nm or less and the alumina protective film 1
0 is Rmax 4 nm or less, and the permalloy magnetic films 11 and 1
2 was less than or equal to Rmax 3 nm, and a surface accuracy equal to or higher than that of polishing was obtained. These results show that the angle of incidence (θ) 25
Approaching 90 degrees, the processing unit removed by the ion beam 21 is miniaturized to angstrom units, which indicates that the influence of the workability due to the difference in the physical properties of each material can be reduced.

Taking these facts together, the incident angle (θ)
25 indicates that it is desirable to set the angle from 80 degrees to 90 degrees. Thereby, it is possible to obtain the floating surface 3 having a small processing step 8 and a smooth surface roughness.

As described above, the ion polishing step 131
1, the flying surface 3 of the row bar 122 is precisely processed for each magnetic head 1 and the height 15 of the MR element is regulated.
As shown in FIG. 13B, a desired taper 101 is formed on a part of the floating surface 3 as in the related art (Step 1305).
Then, while keeping the row bar 122, the floating surface 3 of the substrate 9
The slider rail 124 is formed (Step 1306). Finally, the row bar 122 is cut and divided into individual magnetic heads 1 (Step 1307). At this time, the row bar 122 is formed at the part of the resistance detecting element 141 between the adjacent magnetic heads 1.
Is ground, the resistance detecting element 141 is lost by grinding, and the completed magnetic head 1 has the resistance detecting element 1 attached thereto.
41 does not remain.

As a result, as described above, the MR head 15 can be regulated to a high accuracy of ± 0.1 μm at 3σ, and the magnetic head 1 having a small processing step can be manufactured. Further, the ion polishing step 1 of the present embodiment
No. 311 has an advantage that there is no need to perform liquid cleaning after processing for dry processing, and there is no fear of corrosion of the surface portion of the floating surface 3 or change in characteristics.

In this embodiment, the row bar 122 is fixed during the ion polishing step 1311. However, substantially the same result can be obtained even if the processing is performed while rotating at a speed of 20 rpm or less in the plane of the floating surface 3. can get.

Further, the ion beam 21 for performing the ion polishing may be in a state of being diffused with respect to the floating surface 3 of the row bar 122, a state of being focused on a part of the floating surface 3, or a combination thereof. it can.

Further, in this embodiment, the ion source 700 of the ECR system is used, but the ion source 700 is not limited to this configuration. For example, it has a filament for generating thermoelectrons, gives a toroidal motion to the thermoelectrons generated from the filament by an external magnetic field, generates plasma by efficient ionization of active gas, and generates active ions (ion beam) from the plasma. An ion source extracted from the electrode can also be used.

Further, in the above-described embodiment, only Ar is supplied from the gas introducing mechanism 604, and the flying surface 3 is physically shaved by the collision of Ar ions. However, a reactive gas is mixed into Ar. Can also. For example, tetrafluoromethane which is a fluorohydrocarbon can be mixed.
The amount of mixing may be adjusted so as to have an appropriate degree of vacuum (0.8 to 5 × 10 ⁻⁴ Torr) in performing ion polishing. F generated from this fluorohydrocarbon plasma
The radical chemically reacts with the material of the substrate 9 and the protective film 10,
While increasing the processing speed of these materials, the magnetic film 11,
It does not react with the MR head 12, the MR head 14, or the shield film 13. Therefore, by mixing the reactive gas as described above, the substrate 9 having high hardness can be positively processed. When polishing is performed with a normal ion beam of an inert gas such as Ar or the like, the magnetic film 11,
Although the substrate 12 is recessed from the substrate 9, the end faces of the magnetic films 11 and 12, the MR head 14 and the shield film 13 are flush with the substrate 9 by mixing the reactive gas (that is, the processing step 8 is zero). ), And the end faces of the magnetic films 11 and 12 can be made to protrude beyond the substrate 9. Thus, when the magnetic head 1 is used, the inductive head 2 and the MR head 14 can be brought closer to the magnetic disk 5, so that the flying height 7 can be reduced. Even if these reactive gases are mixed, the ion polishing speed, the surface roughness, and the processing step hardly change. Further, other than Ar, a rare gas such as He, Ne, or Xe can be used.

In the manufacturing method described above, after performing the ion polishing step 1311, the probe 27 having a fine curvature is scanned over a part of the floating surface 3 as shown in FIG. 1312 (see FIG. 13).
It is also possible to perform (b)). This additional processing is particularly effective when the inductive head 2 and the MR head 14 protrude more than the substrate 9 by performing ion polishing by mixing a reactive gas as described above. 2 and the like can be cut down to the same height as the substrate 9. Thus, the machining step 8 can be made substantially zero, and the controllability of the machining step is further improved. In this embodiment, a single crystal diamond probe of an atomic force microscope (AFM) manufactured by Digital Instrument was used as the probe 27, and the probe 27 was scanned using the atomic force microscope device. The conditions for making the inductive head 2 and the MR head 14 protrude from the substrate 9 are as follows.
The incident angle (θ) 25 is set to around 80 degrees, or Ar gas is mixed with a fluorinated hydrocarbon gas by 60% or more. This allows
Any projection can be made in the range of several nanometers.

Before the ion polishing step 1311 in FIG. 13B, a floating surface polishing step 1320 is performed by polishing using abrasive grains.
1 can be used as a finishing process (see FIG. 13).
(D)). In this case, the resistance detection element 1 is
Since 41 is arranged, it is possible to monitor the polishing amount by detecting the resistance of the resistance detecting element 141 during the air bearing surface polishing step 1320 using abrasive grains. Therefore, during the polishing step 1320 using abrasive grains, while monitoring the processing amount by the resistance detecting element, the polishing jig is deformed, the bending and inclination of the row bar are controlled, and the processing amount falls within a predetermined range. After the polishing is performed so that the magnetic head air bearing surface 3 is reached, in the ion polishing step 1311, ion polishing using the focused ion beam is performed.
, The amount of processing in the ion polishing step can be reduced. Specifically, with conventional polishing using abrasive grains, the element height accuracy is ±
Since it has a variation of 0.3 μm, it is calculated based on the resistance value data obtained from the resistance detection element 141.
Additional processing by ion polishing was performed on each magnetic head 1 by a minute processing amount of 05 μm to 0.6 μm. As a result, for the MR element height 15, the processing accuracy was ± 0.15.
μm, and the processing accuracy of the element height was improved more than the polishing method of the abrasive grains alone. The surface roughness of the air bearing surface 3 was as good as or better than that obtained by polishing.

In the apparatus of FIG. 6 used in the ion polishing step 1311 described above, the row bar holder 2 is used.
2 is one magnetic head 1 and one shutter 1
52, but the rover 122
When the number of magnetic heads 1 in the
Will also increase. In this case, the number of shutters 152 can be reduced by increasing the size of the shutters 152 so that several magnetic heads 1 are collectively covered by one shutter 152. Since the distribution of the amount of processing by ion polishing is not so large, even if the number of shutters 152 is reduced in this way, it is possible to finish the MR element height 15 with high accuracy.

[0040]

As described above, according to the present invention,
Prevent corrosion of the magnetic head element on the air bearing surface of the magnetic head,
It is possible to provide a method of manufacturing a magnetic head with a small processing step and capable of controlling the element height with high accuracy.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing a schematic configuration of a conventional magnetic head and a magnetic disk device.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing a layer configuration of the magnetic head of FIG. 1 and a positional relationship between the magnetic head and a magnetic disk.

FIG. 3 is a graph showing the relationship between the flying height of the magnetic head of FIG. 1 and the recording bit length of the magnetic disk.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory view showing a conventional lapping method using diamond abrasive grains.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory view showing a magnetic head processing step obtained by processing the air bearing surface by the method of FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an apparatus used for an ion polishing method in the magnetic head manufacturing method according to one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 7 is a perspective view showing a configuration of a row bar holder 22 of the ion polishing apparatus of FIG.

FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram illustrating control for closing a shutter 152 of the row bar holder 22 in the ion polishing apparatus of FIG.

9 is a graph showing a relationship between an incident angle of an ion beam and an ion polishing speed in ion polishing by the ion polishing apparatus of FIG.

FIG. 10 is a graph showing the relationship between the angle of incidence of an ion beam and the surface roughness of each material of the magnetic head flying surface in ion polishing by the ion polishing apparatus of FIG. 6;

FIG. 11 is a graph showing a relationship between an incident angle of an ion beam and a processing step in ion polishing by the ion polishing apparatus of FIG. 6;

FIG. 12 is an explanatory view showing a step of performing additional processing using a probe after ion polishing in the method of manufacturing a magnetic head of the embodiment.

FIG. 13A is a block diagram showing a flow of a conventional magnetic head manufacturing process. FIG. 2B is a block diagram showing a flow of a magnetic head manufacturing process according to the embodiment. (C) A block diagram showing a flow of another magnetic head manufacturing process of the embodiment. (D) A block diagram showing a flow of still another magnetic head manufacturing process of the present embodiment.

FIG. 14 is an explanatory view showing an arrangement of the inductive head 2, the MR element 14, and the magnetoresistive element 141 on the side surface of the row bar 122 formed in the manufacturing process of the magnetic head of the embodiment.

FIG. 15 is a partial top view showing a configuration of a row bar holder 22 of the ion polishing apparatus of FIG. 6;

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... magnetic head, 2 ... inductive head,
3 ... Floating surface, 4 ... Support spring, 5 ... Magnetic disk, 6 ... Driver, 7 ... Floating amount, 8 ... Processing step, 9 ... Substrate, 10 ... ..Protective films, 11 ...
Upper magnetic film, 12: Lower magnetic film (combined upper shield film), 13: Lower shield film, 14: MR (magnetoresistive) element, 15: Element height, 16 ...・
Surface plate, 17: slurry, 18: polishing jig, 21
... Ion beam, 22 ... Rover holder, 2
3 ... Control device, 24 ... Output device, 25 ... Ion incident angle, 27 ... Probe, 122 ... Rover, 141 ... Resistance detecting element, 145 ... Thin film resistor, 146: pad, 151: tray, 152
... Shutter, 153 ... Probe, 601 ...
Micro generator, 602 ... magnetic field generator, 603
... Ion extraction electrode, 605 ... Substrate cooling mechanism, 606 ... Evacuation device, 607 ... Load lock mechanism, 610 ... Waveguide, 700 ... Ion source.

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (72) Inventor Toshio Tamura 292, Yoshida-cho, Totsuka-ku, Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa Prefecture Inside of Hitachi, Ltd.Production Technology Research Institute (72) Inventor Chihiro Isono 2880 Kozu, Kozu, Odawara-shi, Kanagawa Pref. 5D042 NA02 RA02 RA04 5D093 AA05 AC08 FA15 FA22 FA26 HA18

Claims (9)

[Claims] 1. A method of manufacturing a magnetic head, comprising: a substrate; and a thin-film magnetic head element disposed on the substrate, comprising: a plurality of thin-film magnetic head elements; After the body is formed so as to be arranged adjacent to each other, the substrate is cut out in a predetermined direction along the arrangement to form a block in which the plurality of magnetic heads are connected in a line at the substrate portion. A first step of irradiating an ion beam on a surface of the block which is to be the air bearing surface of the magnetic head, thereby detecting the resistance values of the plurality of thin film resistors while shaving the air bearing surface. A second step of monitoring the processing amount of the air bearing surface with the resistance value, and, from among the magnetic heads, those in which the resistance value of the adjacent thin film resistor has reached a predetermined value. Third, a third step of covering with a shutter and sequentially stopping the processing, and a fourth step of dividing the block into individual magnetic heads by cutting the blocks at boundaries of the magnetic heads constituting the blocks. And a method for manufacturing a magnetic head. 2. The method of manufacturing a magnetic head according to claim 1, wherein when irradiating the ion beam in the second step, an angle between an axial direction of the ion beam and a normal to the air bearing surface is set. , At least 80 degrees and at most 90 degrees. 3. The method of manufacturing a magnetic head according to claim 1, wherein in the second step, the ion beam is
A method of manufacturing a magnetic head, comprising using a substance containing reactive ions that react with the substrate and scrape the substrate. 4. The method of manufacturing a magnetic head according to claim 1, wherein after the second step, a probe is scanned on the air bearing surface to protrude from the substrate on the air bearing surface. A method of manufacturing a magnetic head, comprising: 5. The method of manufacturing a magnetic head according to claim 1, further comprising a step of polishing the floating surface of the block using abrasive grains between the first step and the second step. A method for manufacturing a magnetic head. 6. A holder for holding a block having a shape in which a plurality of magnetic heads are connected in a row at a substrate portion, and an ion source for irradiating the block with an ion beam. An ion polishing apparatus comprising: a shutter for covering the block for each magnetic head; and a drive mechanism for opening and closing the shutter. 7. An ion polishing apparatus according to claim 6, wherein said shutter is provided for each of a plurality of magnetic heads constituting said block. 8. The ion polishing apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the shutter is arranged so as to cover a plurality of magnetic heads constituting the block with a smaller number of shutters than the number of magnetic heads. An ion polishing apparatus characterized in that: 9. The ion polishing apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the holder has a plurality of probes for contacting a plurality of thin-film resistance elements arranged in the block, and A control for detecting a resistance value of the thin-film resistance element and instructing the drive mechanism to close the shutter covering the magnetic head adjacent to the thin-film resistance element when the resistance value reaches a predetermined value. An ion polishing apparatus characterized by comprising means.