JP2000182216A - Manufacture of magnetic head - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a manufacture of the magnetic head which can obtain excellent write characteristics even when the write gap depth is varied for write characteristic improvement. SOLUTION: A write head 10 is formed by stacking a specific material on a substrate 33 and when one specific end surface of the write head 10 is polished, the apex angle θ and film thickness of the upper magnetic pole 14 of the write head 10 are measured and the write gap depth (d) from the raised substrate 14b of the upper magnetic pole 14 is compared with a value m.tanθ/2.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing a magnetic head.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art FIG. 4 is a schematic illustration of a pole induction type thin film magnetic head (recording head) 10 of a composite thin film magnetic head. The thin-film magnetic head 10 is a head that records information on a magnetic disk (not shown).

In the figure, reference numeral 11 denotes a magnetoresistive thin film head (M
The upper magnetic shield layer on the (R head) side. The upper magnetic shield layer 11 also serves as the lower magnetic pole of the thin-film magnetic head 10. On the upper surface of the lower magnetic pole 11, alumina (Al ₂
An interlayer insulating layer 12 made of a thermosetting resin and a thin-film coil conductor layer (Cu) 13 through a recording gap with O ₃ ) interposed
The upper magnetic pole 14 is stacked, and information is recorded by a recording gap 16 formed by the upper magnetic pole 14 and the lower magnetic pole 11.

The rear side of the upper magnetic pole 14 is curved so as to form a predetermined space between the upper magnetic pole 14 and the lower magnetic pole 11, and a thin-film coil layer 13 surrounded by an interlayer insulating layer 12 is formed in the curved portion. The lower magnetic pole 11, the upper magnetic pole 14, and the like are formed by sputtering or vacuum evaporation plating.

[0005] The angle θ formed between the magnetic converging portion 14a on the tip side of the upper magnetic pole 14 in parallel with the lower magnetic pole 11 and the rising portion 14b of the curved portion of the upper magnetic pole 14 is an Apex angle. The apex angle θ affects the magnetic convergence of the magnetic convergence unit 14a, and also affects the recording (write) characteristics.

The distance d between the tip of the magnetic converging portion 14a and the inner base of the rising portion 14b is called a write gap depth d, and this distance also affects recording characteristics.

[0007]

As is well known, the MR head and the thin-film magnetic head 10 are formed by laminating a number of layers including the MR element and the lower magnetic pole 11 and the upper magnetic pole 14 on a non-magnetic substrate. One end surface of the stacked body is polished in order to obtain the required MR height and write gap depth d.

As described above, the upper magnetic pole 14 is formed by sputtering or vacuum evaporation plating. When the upper electrode 14 is formed by sputtering or vacuum evaporation plating, a curved portion including the magnetic converging portion 14a and the rising portion 14b is also formed with a uniform thickness with respect to the lower layer.

Then, the magnetic converging portion 14 of the upper magnetic pole 14
A position shift (Q shifts forward) occurs between the inner corner portion P and the outer corner portion Q between a and the rising portion 14b. Generally, if the write gap depth d is made shallow (small) (although there is a limit), the write characteristics (overwrite, dibit resolution, NLTS, crosstalk, etc.) are improved.

However, when focusing only on the write gap depth d, as described above, when polishing one end face of the laminated body, it may be polished up to the rising portion 14b of the upper magnetic pole 14 (FIG. 5). ). In this case, there is a problem that the substantial thickness m of the upper magnetic pole 14 becomes larger than the initial thickness (dotted line portion), and as a result, the NLTS characteristics and the crosstalk characteristics deteriorate.

Accordingly, the present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problem, and an object of the present invention is to obtain the desired characteristic improvement even if the write gap depth is changed to improve the write characteristic. It is another object of the present invention to provide a method of manufacturing a magnetic head that can obtain good write characteristics.

[0012]

The present invention has the following arrangement to achieve the above object. That is, in the method of manufacturing a magnetic head according to the present invention, a predetermined material is laminated on a substrate to form a write head, and when polishing a predetermined one end surface of the write head, the thickness of the upper magnetic pole of the write head is reduced. m,
When the apex angle is θ, θ and m are measured, and the write gap depth d from the rising base of the upper magnetic pole is compared with the value of m · tan θ / 2.

Thus, even if the depth of the write gap is changed for the purpose of improving the write characteristics, the upper magnetic pole layer is not affected, so that the desired characteristics can be improved.

[0014]

Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram when a composite thin film magnetic head is used. FIG. 1 (a)
2 is a cutaway explanatory view, and FIG. 1B is a cross-sectional view taken along the line XX of FIG. FIGS. 1A and 1B show a composite thin-film magnetic head 32 including a thin-film magnetic head (recording head) 10 and an MR head (reproducing head) 10. FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of the slider 45. The slider 45 has rails 46, 4 on its floating surface side.
6 are formed.

The MR head 30 includes a rectangular magneto-resistance effect element (MR element) 34 formed on a non-magnetic substrate 33,
It is formed of the lead conductor layer 35 of the MR element 34, the upper magnetic shield layer 11, and the lower magnetic shield layer 36.

The MR element 34 and the lead conductor layer 35
It is located between the upper magnetic shield layer 11 and the lower magnetic shield layer 36 and is electrically insulated by the nonmagnetic insulating layer 38.

As described above, the thin-film magnetic head (write head) 10 for recording information on the magnetic disk has the following characteristics.
The upper magnetic shield layer 11 on the side of the R head 30 is also used as a lower magnetic pole. On the upper surface of the lower magnetic pole 11, an interlayer insulating layer 12, a thin-film coil conductor layer (Cu) 13, and an upper magnetic pole 14 made of a thermosetting resin are sequentially laminated via a recording gap 16 with alumina (Al ₂ O ₃ ) interposed therebetween. And upper magnetic pole 1
Information is recorded by the recording gap 16 formed by the magnetic pole 4 and the lower magnetic pole 11.

The rear side of the upper magnetic pole 14 is curved so as to form a predetermined space between the upper magnetic pole 14 and the lower magnetic pole 11, and a thin film coil layer 13 surrounded by an interlayer insulating layer 12 is formed in the curved portion. On the upper magnetic pole 14, a protective insulating layer 39 is formed. The lower magnetic pole 11, the upper magnetic pole 14, the protective insulating layer 39, and the like are formed by sputtering or vacuum evaporation plating.

An angle θ formed between a magnetic converging portion 14a on the leading end side of the upper magnetic pole 14 in parallel with the lower magnetic pole 11 and a rising portion 14b of the curved portion of the upper magnetic pole 14 is an Apex angle. The apex angle θ affects the magnetic convergence of the magnetic convergence unit 14a, and also affects the recording (write) characteristics.

The distance d between the tip of the magnetic converging portion 14a and the inner base of the rising portion 14b is called a write gap depth d, and this distance also affects recording characteristics.

As described above, the positional deviation between the inner corner portion P and the outer corner portion Q of the magnetic converging portion 14a and the rising portion 14b of the upper magnetic pole 14 (Q shifts forward). Occurs. Assuming that the displacement distance between the corner portion P and the corner portion Q (hereinafter referred to as a displacement dimension) is L and the film thickness of the upper magnetic pole 14 is m, the following relational expression is established.

L = m · tan θ / 2 That is, the displacement dimension L is proportional to the thickness m of the upper magnetic pole 14 and the apex angle θ. Polish the laminate, and
Although the R height and the write gap depth d are obtained, when the polishing is performed up to the rising portion 14b of the upper magnetic pole 14, the substantial thickness of the upper magnetic pole 14 increases. It is necessary to end polishing at a large position.

Conventionally, the end point of polishing has been concerned only with the polishing amount (depth). For this purpose, for example, the upper magnetic pole 14
In spite of the fact that the amount of polishing was always the same despite the increase in the film thickness m, there was a problem that polishing was performed up to the rising portion 14b of the upper magnetic pole 14.

In the present invention, the required write gap depth d
Is obtained, the thickness m of the upper magnetic pole 14 and / or the apex angle θ are controlled so that the displacement dimension L falls within a necessary range. Then, the stacked body is polished so that the write gap depth d is larger than the displacement dimension L obtained by m · tan θ / 2.

Alternatively, when the write gap depth d is changed to improve the write characteristics, the film thickness of the upper magnetic pole 14 is determined based on the above relational expression so that the write gap depth d becomes larger than the transition dimension L. It changes the thickness m or the apex angle θ, or both.

The thickness m of the upper magnetic pole 14 can be controlled or changed by strictly controlling or changing the conditions of the sputtering time and the vacuum deposition time. For example, d
When θ and θ are fixed values, a time Tmax for setting the film thickness m to d (tan θ / 2) ⁻¹ is obtained, and the film formation time is compared with Tmax.
The film formation is stopped until Tmax is reached. The setting of the apex angle θ is as follows. That is, as shown in FIG. 3, since the upper magnetic pole 14 is formed on the interlayer insulating layer 12, the inclination angle θ on the tip side of the interlayer insulating layer 12 becomes the apex angle θ as it is.

The interlayer insulating layer 12 is formed by laminating a resin in a single layer or a multilayer. The inclination angle θ on the tip side of the interlayer insulating layer 12 is affected by the viscosity of the laminated resin. If the viscosity of the resin is high, the sag is small, so θ becomes large. The inclination angle θ is also related to the lamination position of the upper resin with respect to the lower resin. In FIG. 3, if the upper resin is shifted to the right with respect to the lower resin, the inclination angle θ becomes smaller. In this manner, the apex angle θ can be set. For example, d and m
Is smaller than 2 tan ^-1 d / m.

Incidentally, when the apex angle θ is 35 ° and the upper magnetic pole film thickness m is 3.5 μm, the displacement dimension L is 1.1.
μm, and the write gap depth d needs to be 1.1 μm or more. If the write gap depth d should be 0.7 μm in order to improve the write characteristics, the apex angle θ: 35 °, the thickness of the upper magnetic pole m: 2.2 μm, or a design change or the apex angle θ: 22.6 °,
The upper magnetic pole film thickness m can be changed to 3.5 μm or the like.

As described above, when obtaining the required write gap depth d, the thickness m of the upper magnetic pole 14 and / or the apex angle θ are controlled so that the displacement dimension L falls within the required range. To Then, the laminate is polished so that the write gap depth d is larger than the displacement dimension L. Good write characteristics (overwrite, dibit resolution, NLTS, crosstalk, etc.)
Is obtained.

Alternatively, when the write gap depth d is changed in order to improve the write characteristics, the film thickness of the upper magnetic pole 14 is determined based on the above relational expression so that the write gap depth d is larger than the transition dimension L. It is designed to change the thickness m or the apex angle θ, or both. Thus, even if the write gap depth is changed for the purpose of improving the write characteristics, the upper magnetic pole layer is not affected, so that the desired characteristics can be improved.

Although the present invention has been described in detail with reference to the preferred embodiments, the present invention is not limited to these embodiments, and it is possible to make various modifications without departing from the spirit of the invention. Of course.

[0032]

According to the method of manufacturing a magnetic head according to the present invention, as described above, even if the write gap depth is changed for the purpose of improving the write characteristics, the change does not affect the upper magnetic pole layer. The characteristics can be improved as follows.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIGS. 1A and 1B are explanatory views of a composite thin-film magnetic head,

FIG. 2 is an explanatory view of a slider,

FIG. 3 is an explanatory view showing the state of an interlayer insulating layer;

FIG. 4 is a partial explanatory view of a thin-film magnetic head;

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing a state in which polishing is performed up to a rising portion of an upper magnetic pole.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 10 thin-film magnetic head 11 lower magnetic pole (upper magnetic shield layer) 12 interlayer insulating layer 13 thin-film coil conductor layer 14 upper magnetic pole 16 write gap 30 MR head 32 composite thin-film magnetic head 33 nonmagnetic substrate 34 MR element 35 lead conductor layer 36 lower magnetism Shield layer 38 Non-magnetic insulating layer 45 Slider

Claims (1)

[Claims] A write head is formed by laminating a predetermined material on a substrate. When polishing a predetermined one end face of the write head, the thickness of the upper magnetic pole of the write head is m, and the apex angle is θ. Then, θ and m are measured, and the write gap depth d from the rising base of the upper magnetic pole and m · tan θ /
2. A method for manufacturing a magnetic head, comprising: