JP2001006110A - Thin film magnetic head, method of manufacturing the same and magnetic recording/reproducing apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a magnetic recording/reproducing apparatus using a thin film magnetic head having the excellent recording characteristic particularly in the higher frequency region, a method of manufacturing the same head and a magnetic recording/reproducing apparatus using the same thin film magnetic head in a thin film magnetic head used in the magnetic recording/reproducing apparatus to realize high density recording and reproducing operation. SOLUTION: A thin film magnetic head slider (floating or displacement supporting material) is formed by forming a thin film magnetic head element 6 for recording and reproducing on a ceramic substrate 1, meanwhile an integrated electronic circuit 8 is formed on a silicon substrate 2, integrating the ceramic substrate 1 including these thin film magnetic head elements 6 and a silicon substrate 2 including the integrated electronic circuit 8 and then electrically connecting the thin film magnetic head element 6.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention is applied to an apparatus for performing high-density recording / reproducing on a magnetic recording medium using a magnetic recording / reproducing apparatus such as a hard disk apparatus for recording a digital information for a computer or the like. And a method of manufacturing the same.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, with the arrival of a full-scale multimedia era, higher performance of a magnetic recording / reproducing apparatus for storing a huge amount of data has become more important than ever. In particular, in a computer such as a hard disk (HDD) or a magnetic recording / reproducing apparatus for storing digital information, the recording format on a magnetic recording medium is shorter in order to increase the recording density. Research and development and its practical use are being actively pursued toward wavelength reduction and narrow track pitch.

In order to achieve such high-density recording, a coercive force must be increased as a recording medium, and a metal thin film recording medium having a coercive force exceeding about 2500 Oe has been put to practical use. For this reason, in a thin-film magnetic head, a magnetic flux density material higher than that of a conventional permalloy is used for a recording head core, and a conventional anisotropic magnetoresistive element (AMR) is used for a reproducing head. Instead, a device using the giant magnetoresistance effect (G
(MR).

[0004] On the other hand, there is a strong demand for a higher transfer rate in addition to an improvement in recording density. Recently, hard disk devices whose transfer rate exceeds 200 to 300 Mbps are being put to practical use. In the conventional thin-film magnetic head, as shown in FIG. 7, a thin-film magnetic head element 71 is mounted on a slider 70, and an integrated circuit 74 on the magnetic recording / reproducing apparatus side is connected via a connection circuit pattern 72 formed on a suspension 73. In general, the connection is made electrically.

However, what is important for achieving a high transfer rate is to connect a recording head and an integrated circuit for controlling the drive and pre-amplifying the head, among the thin-film magnetic heads. The goal is to minimize the connection length. Therefore, in order to shorten the connection length between the thin-film magnetic head and the integrated electronic circuit, the thin-film magnetic head is mounted on the same silicon slider formed as a floating or displacement support (slider) having an appropriate outer shape. It has been proposed to combine the electronic circuit with the electronic circuit. Such a thin film magnetic head is disclosed in, for example,
44334, for example.

[0006]

However, in a thin-film magnetic head slider disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 6-44334, which is combined with the above-mentioned electronic circuit having the conventional structure, FIG. 8 is a sectional view of the slider. As described above, the thin-film magnetic head 87 is formed on the silicon substrate 88, and the most important thin-film magnetic head 87 has
A disadvantage is that a head having a horizontal structure with respect to the magnetic recording medium 85 must be used, and a head structure in which a magnetoresistance effect element (MR) for reproduction and a recording core, which are currently mainstream, are stacked is not possible. is there. In addition, Patent Publication
As described in 44334, since the integrated circuit 86 is arranged on the flying surface (air bearing forming surface) 89 of the slider, there is a high possibility that a problem occurs in the flying characteristics and CSS characteristics. When the integrated circuit 86 is arranged on the surface opposite to the slider flying surface 89, usually, the slider flying surface 8
The surface opposite to the surface 9 serves as an adhesive surface with an elastic member (not shown) for holding the slider 80. Therefore, such a structure has a problem that the structure for holding the slider 80 becomes complicated. As shown in FIG. 7, there is no other method than the configuration of the head and the magnetic recording / reproducing apparatus, and there is a great problem in dealing with high frequencies in the future.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention solves the above-mentioned problems and provides a thin-film magnetic head which satisfies the driving at a higher transfer rate than before, a method of manufacturing the thin-film magnetic head with high productivity, and the thin-film magnetic head. It is an object of the present invention to provide a magnetic recording / reproducing apparatus having excellent performance equipped with a.

[0008]

In order to achieve this object, a thin film magnetic head according to the present invention comprises a head block in which a thin film magnetic head element for recording and reproduction is laminated and formed on a ceramic substrate; A thin film magnetic head formed on a head block, comprising: a circuit block having an integrated electronic circuit formed thereon; a head block and a circuit block being joined and formed integrally; an air bearing shape formed on the head block; It has a configuration in which a thin-film magnetic head slider in which elements and an integrated electronic circuit formed in a circuit block are electrically connected is formed.

With this configuration, the total impedance of the transmission path of the thin-film magnetic head becomes very small, and high-frequency recording becomes possible, and therefore, the recording density can be greatly improved.

The method of manufacturing a thin-film magnetic head according to the present invention comprises a step of forming a large number of thin-film magnetic head elements on a ceramic substrate by using a thin-film forming technique and a step of forming a large number of integrated elements by using a diffusion step on a silicon substrate. A step of forming an electronic circuit, a step of cutting out the ceramic substrate on which a number of thin-film magnetic head elements are formed into a rectangular parallelepiped with a predetermined size, and forming a head block bar having a plurality of thin-film magnetic head elements; Cutting out a predetermined size from the silicon substrate on which the integrated electronic circuit is formed to form a circuit block bar having a plurality of integrated electronic circuits; and Forming a slider bar by joining and integrating the circuit block bar having an integrated electronic circuit; and joining and integrating the slider. Forming a shape of an air bearing on the air bearing surface of the head block bar, and cutting out a pair of thin film magnetic head elements and the integrated electronic circuit from the slider bar formed with the air bearing shape to a predetermined size. Obtaining a magnetic head slider.

According to this method, it is possible to manufacture the magnetic recording / reproducing apparatus relatively easily and excellently in mass production as in the case of the conventional processing technique. A thin-film magnetic head compatible with high-density recording can be manufactured.

[0012]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS According to the first aspect of the present invention, a head block in which thin-film magnetic head elements for recording and reproduction are stacked and formed on a ceramic substrate and a silicon substrate are formed. A circuit block having an integrated electronic circuit, the head block and the circuit block are joined and integrally formed, an air bearing shape is formed in the head block, and the thin film magnetic head element and the circuit block formed in the head block are formed. The formed integrated electronic circuit is electrically connected to form a thin-film magnetic head slider, and the thin-film magnetic head element and the integrated electronic circuit are configured at very close positions. Therefore, the impedance component corresponding to the transmission path of the conventional thin-film magnetic head is extremely small, and the overall impedance is reduced. Sufficiently correspond to higher frequencies as an element of the important characteristics of the air head, it has the effect that it is possible to increase the recording density.

Further, the invention according to claim 2 of the present invention provides:
The integrated electronic circuit formed in the circuit block is characterized by having at least an electronic circuit for driving and controlling the thin-film magnetic head for recording. Things,
It has an effect that the recording density can be improved.

Further, the invention according to claim 3 of the present invention provides:
Forming a large number of thin-film magnetic head elements on a ceramic substrate using thin-film forming technology, forming a large number of integrated electronic circuits on a silicon substrate using a diffusion process, and forming a large number of thin-film magnetic head elements Cutting the formed ceramic substrate into a rectangular parallelepiped shape with a predetermined size, forming a head block bar having a plurality of thin-film magnetic head elements, and forming a head block bar having a plurality of integrated electronic circuits from the silicon substrate having a predetermined size. Cutting out and forming a circuit block bar having a plurality of integrated electronic circuits; and joining and integrating the head block bar having a plurality of thin-film magnetic head elements and the circuit block bar having a plurality of integrated electronic circuits into a slider bar. Forming an air bearing on the air bearing surface of the head block bar of the slider bar that has been integrated. And a step of cutting out a pair of thin-film magnetic head elements and an integrated electronic circuit of a slider bar having an air bearing shape to a predetermined size to obtain a thin-film magnetic head slider. Yes, it can be processed by a relatively easy method as well as the conventional processing technology, and it is a method that is excellent in mass production. This has the effect that a thin-film magnetic head corresponding to an improvement in recording density can be manufactured. A thin film magnetic head capable of coping with a higher frequency of a magnetic recording / reproducing apparatus, which will be increasingly important in the future, and capable of coping with high-density recording, can be manufactured. The thin film magnetic head element and the integrated electronic circuit are manufactured so as to be located close to each other. This has the effect that the reduction can be realized, the high frequency as one important characteristic of the thin-film magnetic head can be coped with, and the recording density can be increased.

The invention according to claim 5 of the present invention provides:
According to another aspect of the present invention, at least one thin film magnetic head according to any one of claims 1, 2 and 4 is mounted, and the total impedance of the mounted thin film magnetic head is reduced. In addition, the recording current rise characteristics can be improved, the NLTS amount does not increase even in a high frequency region, and the magnetic recording / reproducing apparatus having a high recording density and sufficiently coping with high frequency can be obtained. .

An embodiment of a thin-film magnetic head, a method of manufacturing the same, and a magnetic recording / reproducing apparatus using the same according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

(First Embodiment) FIG. 1 is a schematic explanatory perspective view of a thin-film magnetic head according to a first embodiment of the present invention. A thin-film magnetic head element 6 is formed on the ceramic substrate 1 by utilizing thin-film processing technology, and constitutes a head block 11 having a function of transmitting and receiving signals to and from a magnetic recording medium by electromagnetic conversion. An integrated electronic circuit 8 is formed on the silicon substrate 2 using a conventional semiconductor diffusion technique, and constitutes a circuit block 12 having a function of transmitting and receiving signals to and from the thin-film magnetic head element 6. Then, the head block 11 having the thin-film magnetic head element 6 and the circuit block 12 having the integrated electronic circuit 8 are connected to the surface of the head block 11 opposite to the air bearing surface (hereinafter referred to as the air bearing forming surface) 3 by the circuit block 12. Then, the side surface of the surface on which the integrated electronic circuit 8 is formed is joined and integrated, and then the head block 11
The thin film magnetic head 5 is formed by forming an air bearing shape (not shown) on the air bearing forming surface 3. On the surface on which the thin film magnetic head element 6 and the integrated electronic circuit 8 are formed, a connection element 4 on the ceramic substrate side for electrically connecting the thin film magnetic head element 6 and the integrated electronic circuit 8 and a connection on the silicon substrate side An element 10 is formed. The thin-film magnetic head element 6 and the integrated electronic circuit 8 are electrically coupled via the connection elements 4 and 10 and the connection line 7. The signal connection between the integrated electronic circuit 8 and the various integrated circuits at the subsequent stage built in the magnetic recording / reproducing apparatus is made by an external connection element 9.
Done through.

The thin-film magnetic head 5 according to the first embodiment
It is preferable that the integrated electronic circuit 8 configured as described above includes an integrated electronic circuit for driving the recording head unit and the reproducing head unit. However, if the circuit scale becomes too large, at least the recording thin film magnetic head is driven. Integrated electronic circuits must be constructed.

The ceramic substrate 1 used here is A
but those of l ₂ O ₃ consisting -TiC material, desired electrical characteristics and flying characteristics without being limited thereto, CS
Other materials may be used as long as the ceramic substrate satisfies the S characteristic.

The air bearing forming surface 3 of the thin-film magnetic head 5 is formed with an air bearing shape that has been subjected to precision fine processing to satisfy desired flying characteristics.

Next, the total head impedance including the recording head of the thin-film magnetic head according to the first embodiment and the conventional thin-film magnetic head shown in FIG. 7 and the transmission path leading to each integrated electronic circuit is shown. Table 1 shows the comparison. The measurement was performed using an impedance analyzer at a frequency of 1 MHz.

[0022]

[Table 1]

From Table 1, it can be seen that the total impedance is significantly reduced in the thin-film magnetic head according to the first embodiment. Embodiment 1 Regarding the total head impedance including the transmission path to the integrated electronic circuit, the first embodiment
As a result of a detailed examination of the thin film magnetic head shown in FIG. 7 and the conventional thin film magnetic head shown in FIG. 7, it was found that the equivalent model as shown in FIG. FIG. 2A is an equivalent circuit diagram of a conventional thin film magnetic head model, and FIG. 2B is an equivalent circuit diagram of a thin film magnetic head model of the first embodiment.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, the thin-film magnetic head includes the thin-film magnetic head element 6 and the integrated electronic circuit 8.
Are very close to each other, the impedance component corresponding to the transmission path of the conventional thin-film magnetic head (substantially equal to the connection circuit pattern 72 in FIG. 7) becomes very small, and the overall impedance is reduced. Thus, a thin-film magnetic head which can sufficiently cope with a higher frequency of a magnetic recording / reproducing apparatus in the future can be provided. (Embodiment 2) FIG. 3 is a schematic process explanatory view showing a method of manufacturing a thin-film magnetic head according to Embodiment 2 of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 3A, a thin-film magnetic head element 3 in which a reproducing head section and a recording head section (not shown) are sequentially formed on a ceramic substrate 31 using a conventional thin-film forming technique.
Constituting No. 2. Further, as shown in FIG. 3B, an integrated electronic circuit 34 manufactured by using a diffusion process of a conventional semiconductor technology is formed on a silicon substrate 33. At this time, the pitch of the thin-film magnetic head elements 32 formed on the ceramic substrate 31 and the integrated electronic circuit 3 formed on the silicon substrate 33
4 need to have the same pitch.

As shown in FIG. 3C, a rectangular parallelepiped head block bar 35 having a plurality of thin film magnetic head elements 32 is cut out from a ceramic substrate 31 having a plurality of thin film magnetic head elements 32 at a predetermined size. To form
Further, the silicon substrate 3 having a large number of integrated electronic circuits 34
3 is cut out to a predetermined size to form a rectangular parallelepiped circuit block bar 36 having a plurality of integrated electronic circuits 34.

Next, as shown in FIG. 3D, the surface 301 of the head block bar 35 facing the magnetic recording medium, that is, the surface 301 opposite to the air bearing forming surface 38 and the side surface 302 of the circuit block bar 36 are joined. The slider bar 37 is manufactured integrally. The outer shape of the joined and integrated slider bar 37 and the air bearing forming surface 38 (also referred to as a floating surface) are precisely and finely processed to predetermined dimensions to form an air bearing shape (not shown).

Next, as shown in FIG. 3E, the slider bar 37 is cut out from the slider bar 37 to a predetermined size (indicated by a broken line), and a pair of thin-film magnetic head elements 32 and an integrated electronic circuit 34 are cut out.
To produce individual thin-film magnetic head sliders 39 having
A thin-film magnetic head can be obtained.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, compared with the conventional processing technology, it is possible to manufacture the magnetic recording / reproducing which is not very complicated processing and is excellent in mass productivity, and which will be increasingly important in the future. A thin-film magnetic head which can sufficiently cope with the high frequency of the apparatus and which can cope with high density recording can be manufactured.

Further, as described in the conventional example, it is presumed that forming a thin film magnetic head element and an electronic circuit on the same silicon substrate requires a very complicated process or technique. After either the element or the electronic circuit is formed first, the other electronic circuit or the thin-film magnetic head element is formed, and is formed earlier by the processing step of the functional element formed later. Functional elements can be damaged by heat and other causes, and it is inferred that current technology is not a reasonable method,
According to the present embodiment, a thin film magnetic head slider is manufactured by a relatively rational and simple method for forming a thin film magnetic head element on a ceramic substrate and forming and integrating an integrated electronic circuit on a silicon substrate. be able to.

(Embodiment 3) FIG. 4 is a schematic configuration diagram of a main part of a magnetic recording / reproducing apparatus according to Embodiment 3 of the present invention. The thin-film magnetic head 41 having the thin-film magnetic head element and the integrated electronic circuit described in the first embodiment is held by a head gimbal 42 made of an elastic member, and a suspension 43
And mounted on a suspension support 44 and opposed to a magnetic recording medium (magnetic disk) 40. When recording / reproducing with the magnetic recording / reproducing apparatus having such a configuration, the magnetic recording medium 40 rotates, and the air fluid generated by the rotation of the magnetic recording medium 40 causes the thin-film magnetic head 41 and the like to move due to the effect of the air bearing of the thin-film magnetic head 41. Integrally float slightly to transmit and receive signals to and from the magnetic recording medium 40.

According to the present embodiment as described above, FIG.
As shown in (1), the rising characteristics of the recording current can be greatly improved. FIG. 5 is a current waveform diagram comparing the rise characteristics of the recording current of the magnetic recording / reproducing device equipped with the thin-film magnetic head according to the first embodiment and the magnetic recording / reproducing device equipped with the conventional thin-film magnetic head. .
The measuring method was a frequency of 10 MHz, and the recording current value set for the integrated circuit was 60 mAp-p. The actual current waveform flowing through the thin-film magnetic head at that time was observed with a digital oscilloscope. Since the total impedance of the thin-film magnetic head 41 mounted on the magnetic recording / reproducing apparatus according to the present embodiment is reduced, the recording current can be passed through the same recording / amplifying circuit as the magnetic recording / reproducing apparatus equipped with the conventional thin-film magnetic head. Can be improved.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing the measurement results of the shift amount (hereinafter referred to as NLTS) of the nonlinear magnetic transition region. As a measuring method, the recording current is constant at each frequency (30 mA).
OP), the NLTS amount at each frequency when the recording frequency was varied from 100 to 240 MHz was measured by the fifth harmonic method. In the magnetic recording / reproducing apparatus equipped with the thin-film magnetic head according to the first embodiment, the NLTS amount does not increase even in a high frequency region exceeding 180 MHz. On the other hand, in a magnetic recording / reproducing apparatus equipped with a conventional thin film magnetic head, the NLTS amount sharply increases above 150 MHz,
It is expected that the operation of the magnetic recording / reproducing apparatus in a high frequency region will be difficult.

Therefore, according to the present embodiment, the NLTS amount does not increase even in the high frequency region.

As described above, the thin-film magnetic head of the present invention has excellent electromagnetic conversion characteristics and also has excellent mass productivity. Further, it is possible to provide a magnetic recording / reproducing apparatus having higher performance than before using the thin-film magnetic head of the present invention.

[0035]

As described above, according to the present invention, the thin-film magnetic head element and the integrated electronic circuit for driving and controlling the recording head section and the reproducing head section are formed very close to each other. The total head impedance including the transmission path up to the element and the integrated electronic circuit is very small, the rise time is short, and it has a great effect on high frequency, reduction of impedance noise and NLTS amount in high frequency region. By suppressing the increase, the recording characteristics can be particularly improved, and the effect of realizing greatly improved overall electromagnetic conversion characteristics can be obtained.

Further, there is an effect that the thin film magnetic head having the above-mentioned excellent effects can be realized with high yield and high mass productivity.

Further, as a magnetic recording / reproducing apparatus, the rising characteristic of the recording current is improved, the NLTS amount in the high frequency region hardly increases, and a great effect can be obtained for a higher frequency in the future. An effect is obtained on the sex.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic explanatory perspective view of a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an equivalent circuit diagram in Embodiment 1 of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a schematic configuration diagram of a main part according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a schematic configuration diagram of a main part according to a third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a current waveform diagram according to a third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an NLTS amount measurement result according to the third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram of a main part configuration of a conventional magnetic recording / reproducing apparatus.

FIG. 8 is a sectional view of a conventional thin-film magnetic head slider.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1, 31 Ceramic substrate 2, 33 Silicon substrate 3, 38, 89 Air bearing forming surface (floating surface) 4, 10 Connection element 5, 41, 71, 87 Thin film magnetic head 6, 32 Thin film magnetic head element 7 Connection line 8, 34 Integrated Electronic Circuit 9 External Connection Element 11 Head Block 12 Circuit Block 35 Head Block Bar 36 Circuit Block Bar 37 Slider Bar 39 Thin Film Magnetic Head Slider 40, 85 Magnetic Recording Medium 42 Head Gimbal 43, 73 Suspension 44 Suspension Support 70, 80 Slider 72 Connection circuit pattern 74, 86 Integrated circuit 301 surface 302 side surface

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A head comprising: a head block in which thin-film magnetic head elements for recording and reproduction are stacked and formed on a ceramic substrate; and a circuit block having an integrated electronic circuit formed on a silicon substrate. A block and the circuit block are joined and formed integrally, an air bearing shape is formed in the head block, the thin-film magnetic head element formed in the head block, and the integrated electronic circuit formed in the circuit block. Are electrically connected to form a thin-film magnetic head slider. 2. The thin-film magnetic head according to claim 1, wherein the integrated electronic circuit formed in the circuit block has at least an electronic circuit for driving and controlling a thin-film magnetic head for recording. 3. A step of forming a large number of thin-film magnetic head elements on a ceramic substrate using a thin-film forming technique; a step of forming a large number of integrated electronic circuits on a silicon substrate by a diffusion step; A step of cutting the ceramic substrate on which the thin-film magnetic head elements are formed into a rectangular parallelepiped at a predetermined size to form a head block bar having a plurality of the thin-film magnetic head elements; and forming the large number of integrated electronic circuits. Cutting out a predetermined size from the silicon substrate to form a circuit block bar having a plurality of the integrated electronic circuits; and forming the head block bar having the plurality of thin-film magnetic head elements and the plurality of the integrated electronic circuits. Joining the circuit block bar having a slider bar to form a slider bar; and Forming a shape of an air bearing on the air bearing surface of the solid block bar; and cutting out the pair of the thin film magnetic head element and the integrated electronic circuit to a predetermined size from the slider bar having the air bearing shape formed thereon. Obtaining a slider,
A method for manufacturing a thin-film magnetic head, comprising: 4. A thin film magnetic head manufactured by the method of manufacturing a thin film magnetic head according to claim 3. 5. A magnetic recording / reproducing apparatus comprising at least one thin-film magnetic head according to claim 1, 2 or 4.