JP2006059501A - Manufacturing method of slider - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To suppress variations in smoothness of the protruding part (the rail part) of a slider. <P>SOLUTION: The manufacturing method of the slider has a step (step 54) for forming a temporary protective film on the face opposed to a recording medium of the slider, a rugged part formation step (step 55) for forming a rugged part which controls the flying height with respect to the recording medium of the slider when time a thin film magnetic head element performs read or write from/to the recording medium on the face opposed to the recording medium by removing a part of the surface of the face opposed to the recording medium on which the temporary protective film is formed, and a temporary protective film removal step (step 56) for removing the temporary protective film from the face opposed to the recording medium on which the rugged part is formed. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing a slider on which a thin film magnetic head is mounted, and more particularly to a method for manufacturing a slider that can improve the smoothness of an air bearing surface.

  Hard disk drives are widely used for recording digital information as high-speed, large-capacity, high-reliability, low-cost recording media, and the recording density of hard disk drives has exceeded 100 gigabits per square inch due to many years of technological development. is there. In a hard disk drive, a plurality of head arm assemblies each having an arm and a head gimbal assembly provided at the tip of the arm are provided according to the number of magnetic disks as recording media. The head gimbal assembly has a magnetic head slider (hereinafter referred to as a slider) that mounts and supports a thin film magnetic head for recording and reproducing information on a recording medium. The surface where the slider faces the recording medium is called the medium facing surface (ABS). When recording / reproducing information to / from the recording medium, the slider slightly floats on the recording medium rotating at high speed by air pressure. Thus, the distance between the ABS and the surface of the recording medium when flying by air pressure is called the flying height.

  Since the bit length of the recording medium is shortened when the flying height is reduced, reducing the flying height is effective for increasing the density of the recording medium. For this reason, with the recent demand for higher recording density of hard disk drives, it is required to further suppress the flying height.

  By the way, the medium facing surface of the slider is provided with unevenness for adjusting the air flow in order to generate an appropriate wind pressure between the slider and the recording medium. Of these irregularities, the convex portion (in this specification, the convex portion is a portion close to the recording medium, and the concave portion is a portion far from the recording medium) and extends mainly in the circumferential direction of the thin film magnetic head portion. A rail part is included and the medium facing surface is substantially formed. However, in order to stably float with a slight flying height, it is necessary to smooth the convex portion (rail portion).

For this reason, a technique for improving the manufacturing accuracy of the rail portion by devising the manufacturing method of the magnetic head slider is disclosed. For example, a technique for directly processing a rail portion on a slider by irradiating a high energy beam such as an ion beam or an excimer laser beam under reduced pressure is disclosed (see Patent Document 1). Further, a technique is disclosed in which polishing is performed before or after cutting out the slider after the etching step for forming the rail portion (Patent Document 2).
JP-A-8-138223 JP 2000-163727 A

  However, due to the recent demand for higher recording density of hard disk drives, the required flying height is required to be 10 nm or less. In these conventional techniques, it was not possible to ensure flatness sufficient to cope with such strict flying height requirements. For example, Patent Document 1 describes that, as an effect of the invention, a machined surface roughness of 100 nm or less can be realized depending on conditions, but cannot satisfy a request for a flying height of 10 nm or less.

  The medium facing surface is accompanied by thin film technology such as polishing, cutting (slicing), and formation of a protective film, and the medium facing surface is made of AlTiC material, which is the main material of the magnetic head slider. In addition, since various materials such as ceramics such as alumina and metals such as permalloy are exposed, precise processing has been difficult.

  Also, when forming irregularities, resist peeling is usually repeated several times. Conventionally, cleaning has been performed each time. However, since cleaning is usually performed using a brush or the like, the protective film or the element itself is scratched. Etc. may be caused. Usually, several to several tens of bars are bonded to a dry-etching jig before forming the unevenness, and the bars are removed from the jig and transferred to the tray after forming the unevenness. In some cases, the bars collide with each other in a series of processes, or when the bars are gripped for transfer, damage to the protective film or the element itself may be caused. As described above, when the protective film or the element is damaged, the element is easily corroded and affects the characteristics of the element.

  Furthermore, in the conventional technology, foreign matter sometimes reattaches to the uneven portion of the slider (called a fence) when the uneven portion is formed. This occurs particularly at the corners of the convex surface where the resist cover is insufficient, and the height may be several to several tens of nm, which hinders the improvement of the flatness of the slider. Although it may be removed to some extent by cleaning, there is a problem of damage to the protective film due to cleaning as described above.

  In addition, shock resistance of hard disk drives has become increasingly important as hard disk drives become more mobile. However, in the prior art, the corner portion of the convex surface of the slider is formed very sharply, so when the hard disk drive receives an impact, the head may hit the recording medium, and the sharp corner portion may damage the recording medium. there were. This problem is the same even in the case of the foreign matter reattachment.

  In view of such circumstances, the present invention provides a slider manufacturing method capable of suppressing variations in smoothness of a precision processing of a slider, in particular, a convex portion (rail portion), in order to realize further higher recording density of a hard disk drive. The purpose is to provide.

  The slider manufacturing method of the present invention is a slider having a thin film magnetic head element portion provided with at least one of a magnetoresistive effect element for reading magnetic recording from a recording medium or an inductive magnetic transducer element for writing magnetic recording on the recording medium. In this manufacturing method, the slider includes a polishing process of the surface facing the recording medium where the slider faces the recording medium. In order to solve the above problems, the slider manufacturing method of the present invention includes a step of forming a temporary protective film on the recording medium facing surface, and a part of the surface of the recording medium facing surface on which the temporary protective film is formed. An uneven portion forming step for forming an uneven portion on the surface opposite to the recording medium to remove and form an uneven portion for controlling the flying height of the slider relative to the recording medium when the thin film magnetic head element portion reads or writes to the recording medium, and the uneven portion is formed. A temporary protective film removing step for removing the temporary protective film from the recording medium facing surface.

  According to such a manufacturing method, after the concavo-convex portion forming step, the temporary protective film whose flatness is deteriorated by the concavo-convex portion forming step is removed, and is not damaged by the concavo-convex portion forming step. Then, a convex portion having a high flatness and a small variation in flatness is exposed, and the subsequent steps are performed based on the convex portion. As a result, it is possible to suppress variations in the smoothness of the convex portions that affect the flying height of the slider while preventing damage such as corrosion to the thin film magnetic head element portion during the uneven portion forming step.

  As the temporary protective film, an inorganic material containing diamond-like carbon or SiO 2 can be used.

  The temporary protective film removal step can be performed by dry etching, and it is particularly preferable to use milling or reactive ion etching.

  You may have the grinding | polishing step which grind | polishes a recording medium opposing surface after an uneven | corrugated | grooved part formation step. As a result, the convex surface can be flattened, and further, foreign matter reattached to the corner portion of the convex surface can be removed, or the corner portion of the convex surface can be polished round.

  Further, after the polishing step, a step of forming a protective film on the recording medium facing surface may be included.

  As described above, according to the slider manufacturing method of the present invention, the temporary protective film is once removed after the formation of the concavo-convex portion on the recording medium facing surface. Therefore, precision processing of the slider, particularly the rail portion and the thin film magnetic head element portion, etc. It is possible to suppress the variation in the smoothness of the convex portion. Further, since the protective film is formed by performing flattening again after the unevenness forming step, it is possible to omit the process of damaging the protective film as much as possible. As a result, it becomes easy not only to improve the reliability of the slider but also to cope with a higher recording density of the hard disk drive by reducing the flying height.

  Hereinafter, the slider manufacturing method of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. First, the slider which is the object of the slider manufacturing method of the present invention will be described. FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a head arm assembly having a slider at the tip. A plurality of head arm assemblies 1 are provided in a hard disk device (not shown) according to the number of disks. The head arm assembly 1 includes an arm 11 and a head gimbal assembly 2 provided at the tip of the arm 11, and the other end of the arm 11 is supported by a rotating shaft 12. The head gimbal assembly 2 includes a slider 21 having a thin film magnetic head portion 28 (see FIG. 2), a flexure 22 that supports the slider 21, and a load beam 23 that connects the flexure 22 to the arm 11. The head arm assembly 1 rotates about the shaft 12 and positions the slider 21 at a predetermined position with respect to the recording medium P. In FIG. 1, the slider 21 is provided below the recording medium P, but a similar head arm assembly is also provided above the recording medium P.

  FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the slider as seen from the medium facing surface ABS. The slider 21 is displayed in a direction looking down obliquely from the top as in FIG. 1, and in the drawing, a disk-shaped recording medium P that is rotationally driven is positioned above the slider 21. The slider 21 includes a substrate 27 and a laminated thin film magnetic head portion 28. The slider 21 has a substantially hexahedral shape, and one surface of the six surfaces faces the recording medium P. An uneven portion is formed on the medium facing surface ABS of the slider 21, and the convex portion includes a read / write portion 24 provided with read / write elements of the thin film magnetic head portion 28, and rail portions 25a and 25b having steps, The other part is a recess 26.

  When the recording medium P rotates, an air flow passing between the recording medium P and the slider 21 causes a downward lift in the y direction in FIGS. The slider 21 floats from the surface of the recording medium P by this lift. 1 and 2, the x direction is the track crossing direction of the recording medium P, and the z direction is the circumferential direction of the recording medium P. The rail portion as a whole is formed along the z direction, and the thin film magnetic head portion 28 is formed on the end of the slider 21 on the air outflow side (lower left end in FIG. 2). That is, air enters through a slight gap between the rail portion 25b and the recording medium P, hits the read / write portion 24 while being rectified by the rail portions 25a on both sides, and between the read / write portion 24 and the recording medium P. The slider 21 flows away from the gap, whereby the slider 21 floats from the surface of the recording medium P. As described above, the slider 21 can float with respect to the recording medium P by the concave and convex portions of the medium facing surface ABS when the thin film magnetic head element unit 28 reads or writes data on the recording medium P. The amount is adjusted by its shape.

  FIG. 3 shows a cross-sectional view of the slider shown in FIG. 2 along the line 3-3 in FIG. In FIG. 3, the recording medium P (not shown) extends in the direction perpendicular to the drawing above the medium facing surface ABS. The thin film magnetic head portion 28 has a magnetoresistive effect element that reads magnetic recording from the recording medium P and an inductive magnetic transducer element that writes magnetic recording on the recording medium P, but has only one of them. You can do it. The induction type magnetic conversion element may be either a horizontal recording system that performs recording in the in-plane direction of the recording medium P or a vertical recording system that performs recording in the out-of-plane direction of the recording medium P.

  The thin film magnetic head portion 28 is configured by sequentially laminating from the substrate 27 made of a ceramic material such as AlTiC (Al2O3 · TiC) on the right side in the drawing toward the left. A shield layer 31 made of, for example, permalloy (NiFe) is formed on the substrate 27 (left side in the figure; the same applies hereinafter) with an insulating layer interposed therebetween. An MR element 32 as a reading element is provided on the shield layer 31 so as to face the medium facing surface ABS. As the MR element 32, an element using a magnetosensitive film showing a magnetoresistance effect, such as an AMR (anisotropic magnetoresistance effect) element, a GMR (giant magnetoresistance effect) element, or a TMR (tunnel magnetoresistance effect) element, is used. Can be used. The MR element 32 is connected to a pair of lead layers (not shown) that send the read signals.

  On the MR element 32, a lower magnetic pole layer 33 made of a magnetic material such as permalloy or CoNiFe that can be formed by a plating method is formed. The lower magnetic pole layer 33 has both a function as a lower magnetic pole layer of the recording head and a function as an upper shield layer of the reproducing head (MR element 32).

  An upper magnetic pole layer 35 is provided on the lower magnetic pole layer 33 via a recording gap 34 for insulation. As the material of the recording gap 34, for example, a nonmagnetic metal material that can be formed by a plating method such as NiP is used. As the material of the upper magnetic pole layer 35, for example, a magnetic material that can be formed by a plating method such as permalloy or CoNiFe is used, and a high saturation magnetic flux density material is particularly preferable. The lower magnetic pole layer 33 and the upper magnetic pole layer 35 are connected by a connecting portion 36 to form a single U-shaped conductor as a whole.

  Between the medium facing surface ABS and the connection portion 36 between the upper magnetic pole layer 35 and the lower magnetic pole layer 33, two-stage coils 37a and 37b made of a conductive material such as copper are provided. The coils 37 a and 37 b are provided around the connection portion 36 and supply magnetic flux to the upper magnetic pole layer 35 and the lower magnetic pole layer 33. The coil 37a is surrounded by the insulating layer 38, and the coil 37b is surrounded by the insulating layers 39 and 40 and insulated from the surroundings. Here, the two-tier structure is an example, and may be a one-tier structure or a multi-layer structure having three or more stages. Note that a lead layer (not shown) for receiving a current signal from the outside is connected to the coil 37b. Finally, an overcoat layer 41 is formed so as to cover the upper magnetic pole layer 35 and the lead layer. As the material of the overcoat layer 41, for example, an insulating material such as alumina is used.

  In the medium facing surface ABS, the rail portion 25a protrudes most with respect to the recording medium P, and the read / write portion 24 is drawn into the recording medium P by about 1 to 3 nm from the rail portion 25a. The steps of the rail portions 25a and 25b are not necessarily required. The level difference between the read / write portion 24 and the concave portion 26 is 1 to 5 μm. A protective film 42 having a thickness of about 1 to 4 nm made of a mixed film of Si and DLC (Diamond like carbon) is formed on the medium facing surface ABS. The back surface 43 of the medium facing surface ABS of the slider 21 is a contact surface with the flexure 22 that supports the slider 21.

  Next, the manufacturing method of the slider described above will be described with emphasis on the processing of the medium facing surface ABS with reference to the flowchart of FIG. 4 and the step diagrams of FIGS. 5 and 6A to 6D.

  (Step 51) First, as shown in FIG. 5A, a large number of thin film magnetic head portions 28 are stacked on a wafer 71 by a thin film process, and the wafer 71 is formed into a strip shape as shown in FIG. Cut into multiple bars 72. The wafer 71 and the cut bar 72 are provided with one measuring element 73 in advance for each of the plurality of thin film magnetic head units 28 in order to manage the polishing amount of the medium facing surface ABS in the next step 52. .

  (Step 52) Next, the back surface 43 of the bar 72 is polished. For example, the polishing operation is performed by fixing the bar 72 on the rotating polishing table and pressing the back surface 43 while supplying a water-soluble or oil-based lapping solution containing diamond abrasive grains. As a result, the back surface 43 is smoothed, and the completed slider 21 is securely fixed to the flexure 22.

  (Step 53) Next, the medium facing surface ABS is polished. In this polishing operation, as shown in FIG. 6A, the MR height of the MR element 32 (the height from the medium facing surface ABS to the opposite end of the MR element) is previously formed with a margin, and the medium facing surface is formed. This is done to form a predetermined MR height by polishing the ABS. The polishing operation is performed, for example, by pressing the medium facing surface ABS of the bar 72 against the surface of a polishing plate formed by embedding diamond abrasive grains in the surface of a disk made of Sn (tin). As a result, the position of the medium facing surface ABS moves as a whole (on the side where the coil 37a and the like are present) as compared to before the start of this step.

  (Step 54) Next, as shown in FIG. 6B, a temporary protective film 45 made of a mixed film of Si and DLC having a thickness of about 1 to 4 nm is formed on the medium facing surface ABS, for example, by sputtering. Conventionally, in the concavo-convex portion forming step (step 55), the medium facing surface ABS has been exposed to a chemically active liquid such as acid, alkali, organic solvent, etc., so that the Fe-based alloy material which is a highly saturated magnetic flux material is corroded. The magnetic pole portion (the lower magnetic pole layer 33 and the upper magnetic pole layer 35) of the medium facing surface ABS tended to be slightly recessed. Therefore, by forming the temporary protective film 45 before the uneven portion forming step, corrosion of the magnetic pole portion using the Fe-based alloy material having poor corrosion resistance can be prevented. The reason why the DLC is used is that the corrosion resistance is sufficient, the thin temporary protective film 45 having a film thickness of about 1 to 4 nm can be formed, and can be easily removed as will be described later. This is because the rail can be formed into an accurate shape without obstruction. In addition, the temporary protective film 45 may be made of an inorganic material such as SiO 2 that has corrosion resistance, is easily removed, and has similar properties.

  (Step 55) Next, as shown in FIG. 6C, uneven portions are formed on the medium facing surface ABS. Specifically, a part of the medium facing surface ABS is removed by dry etching such as ion milling or RIE (reactive ion etching) to form the concave portion 26 and the rail portion 25b. Further, the portions that are not removed become the read / write portion 24 and the rail portion 25a. Note that the processing accuracy in the depth direction at this time is about 30 nm.

  (Step 56) Next, as shown in FIG. 6D, the temporary protective film 45 formed in Step 54 and remaining on the surfaces of the read / write portion 24 and the rail portion 25a in Step 55 is dry-etched such as milling or RIE. Remove once. Here, the temporary protective film 45 is first removed because the rail portion 25a under the temporary protective film 45 is polished flat in step 53, and the temporary protective film is formed in the uneven portion forming process in step 55. Since it is protected by the film 45, high flatness is maintained, and variation in flatness is suppressed, such a portion having good flatness is exposed and used as a reference for the subsequent process. This is because the flatness of the medium facing surface ABS of the slider is improved, and variations in flatness are suppressed. Second, since the temporary protective film 45 is damaged during the uneven portion forming process, removing the temporary protective film 45 and forming a healthy protective film again increases the reliability of the slider. is there. The reason for removing the temporary protective film 45 at this stage, not at the time of re-polishing in step 58 is that DLC is very hard and therefore difficult to remove in the next polishing process. This is because it is more effective to collectively remove the film 45 by dry etching. The reason why dry etching is used is that only a thin protective film of 1 to 4 nm can be uniformly removed while minimizing damage to other portions of the slider and the lower layer of the protective film.

  (Step 57) Next, the bar 72 is preheated at 100 to 200 ° C. for 1 to 2 hours. This is for correcting a difference in thermal deformation generated between the substrate 27 and the thin film magnetic head portion 28 due to a temperature difference between polishing and use as a product. When the hard disk drive is driven, the temperature around the thin film magnetic head portion 28 (all the deposited layers) is close to 100 ° C., and a temperature difference occurs between the thin film magnetic head portion 28 and the substrate 27, and the substrate 27 and the thin film magnetic head portion. Since the coefficient of thermal expansion is different from that of No. 28, the overcoat layer 41 or the like partially protrudes and a step is generated. However, due to the residual stress generated in the substrate 27 and the thin film magnetic head portion 28, when the temperature returns to room temperature, these do not return to the state before heating, and the overcoat layer 41 and the like partially leave a protrusion of several nm. . On the other hand, if preheating is performed, the temperature is returned to room temperature and then polished, the residual stress is released. Therefore, even if reheating and cooling are repeated, no bulge remains when the temperature returns to room temperature. Preheating may be performed before the first polishing (step 53), or may be performed before each polishing (steps 53 and 57).

  (Step 58) Next, the medium facing surface ABS is re-polished at room temperature. As a result, the smoothness of the rails 25a, 25b and the read / write portion 24 is improved, and the edges R1, R2, R3, R4 of the rail portion are rounded, so that the edge portion is missing and foreign matter adheres to the periphery of the rail portion. Can be suppressed.

  (Step 59) Next, the protective film 42 is formed on the medium facing surface ABS. The protective film 42 is a final protective film, and is a DLC film having a thickness of about 1 to 4 nm, like the temporary protective film 45 formed in step 54. In this way, the damaged temporary protective film 45 is removed once, and the healthy protective film 42 is formed again, so that the reliability of the protective film and, consequently, the slider is increased. As the protective film 42, an inorganic material such as SiO 2 can also be used. The state at this time is as shown in FIG.

  (Step 60) Next, the bar 72 is washed.

  (Step 61) Next, the bar 72 is cut to create a slider piece for each piece.

  In order to actually confirm the flatness of the medium recording surface ABS of the slider formed by such steps, 100 slider samples were prepared, the medium facing surface ABS was scanned with an atomic force microscope (AFM), The amount of dents was measured. FIG. 7 shows the average value of the dent amount in the overcoat layer 41, the lower magnetic pole layer 33, and the shield layer 31, the standard deviation, the maximum value / minimum value, and the difference between the maximum value / minimum value. Here, as shown in the figure, the dent amount is the dent amount of each portion of the thin film magnetic head portion when the reference surface on the substrate side of the medium facing surface ABS is zero. The sample shield layer 31 and the bottom pole layer 33 are made of Fe—Ni alloy, and the overcoat layer 41 is made of alumina. Circles in the figure indicate approximate measurement positions. When comparing the manufacturing method according to the prior art and the present invention, the standard deviation and the difference value indicating the variation in the dent amount are smaller in any part, and the variation in the flatness of the medium facing surface ABS is smaller. It was confirmed that precise machining became possible.

  Further, in step 58, the shape of the corner portion of the medium facing surface ABS of the slider was compared with the manufacturing result by the prior art in order to confirm the effect of re-polishing after removing the temporary protective film 45 and preheating. FIG. 8 shows the result of measuring the cross-sectional profile of the slider surface with the medium facing surface ABS displayed on the upper side by AFM. FIG. 4A is a cross-sectional profile of a slider manufactured by the prior art, and FIG. 4B is a cross-sectional profile according to the present invention. In the figure, the vertical axis 0 indicates the reference line of the medium facing surface ABS, and the read / write portion is processed inside the reference line in both the conventional technique and the present invention. The numbers in the figure correspond to the arrows in FIG. 6E. As indicated by the circles in the figure, in the prior art, the corner portion has an especially sharp edge. However, according to the present invention, the corner portion can be formed in a rounded shape. As a result, it is possible to suppress the missing edge of the corner portion and the adhesion of foreign matter.

  The effects of the present invention are summarized as follows. First, while preventing damage such as corrosion to the thin-film magnetic head element during the concavo-convex formation step, suppress unevenness in the smoothness of the convex part that affects the flying height of the slider, and reduce the flying height accordingly. Can lead to higher recording density of hard disk drives. Next, the damaged temporary protective film 45 is removed once, and the healthy protective film 42 is formed again, so that the foreign matter reattached to the corners of the convex portions can be removed or the edges of the corner portions of the convex portions can be removed. Can be rounded, and the reliability of the slider is increased.

  Note that the present invention is not limited to the procedure for forming irregularities on the recording medium facing surface in the bar state, forming / removing the temporary protective film, re-polishing, etc., and cutting the bar into individual slider pieces in advance. In addition, a procedure for performing each step described above on each slider piece, a procedure for cutting the slider piece in the middle of the step (for example, after removal of the temporary protective film and before re-polishing) are also possible.

It is a perspective view of the head arm assembly which has the slider used as the object of the slider manufacturing method of this invention in the front-end | tip. It is a perspective view of the slider shown in FIG. It is sectional drawing which shows the lamination | stacking state of the slider shown in FIG. It is a flowchart of the slider manufacturing method of this invention. It is a perspective view of the wafer and bar in which the thin film magnetic head part was formed. It is a step figure explaining the slider manufacturing method of the present invention. It is a step figure explaining the slider manufacturing method of the present invention. It is a step figure explaining the slider manufacturing method of the present invention. It is a step figure explaining the slider manufacturing method of the present invention. It is a step figure explaining the slider manufacturing method of the present invention. It is a figure which shows the improvement effect of the smoothness of the slider by the slider manufacturing method of this invention. It is a figure which shows the improvement effect of the smoothness of the slider by the slider manufacturing method of this invention.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Head arm assembly 2 Head gimbal assembly 21 Slider 22 Flexure 23 Load beam 24 Read / write part 25a, 25 Rail part 26 Recessed part 27 Substrate 28 Thin film magnetic head part 31 Shield layer 32 MR element 33 Lower magnetic pole layer 34 Recording gap 35 Upper magnetic pole layer 36 Connecting portion 37a, 37b Coil 38, 39, 40 Insulating layer 41 Overcoat layer 42 Protective film 43 Back surface 45 Temporary protective film 71 Wafer 72 Bar ABS Medium facing surface

Claims (6)

A slider having a thin film magnetic head element having at least one of a magnetoresistive effect element for reading magnetic recording from a recording medium or an inductive magnetic conversion element for writing magnetic recording on the recording medium, the slider facing the recording medium A manufacturing method including polishing processing of a recording medium facing surface,
Forming a temporary protective film on the recording medium facing surface;
A part of the surface of the recording medium facing surface on which the temporary protective film is formed is removed, and the flying height of the slider with respect to the recording medium when the thin film magnetic head element unit reads or writes to the recording medium is controlled. Forming a concavo-convex portion to be formed on the recording medium facing surface;
And a temporary protective film removing step of removing the temporary protective film from the recording medium facing surface on which the concave and convex portions are formed.   The slider manufacturing method according to claim 1, wherein the temporary protective film is an inorganic material containing diamond-like carbon or SiO 2.   The slider manufacturing method according to claim 1, wherein the temporary protective film removing step is performed by dry etching.   The method for manufacturing a slider according to claim 3, wherein the dry etching is milling or reactive ion etching.   5. The slider manufacturing method according to claim 1, further comprising a polishing step of polishing the recording medium facing surface after the uneven portion forming step. 6.   6. The method for manufacturing a slider according to claim 5, further comprising a step of forming a protective film on the recording medium facing surface after the polishing step.

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