JP2544563B2 - Thin film magnetic head and magnetic recording device - Google Patents

Description

Description: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a thin film magnetic head formed by means of film forming means such as plating, vapor deposition and sputtering and high precision pattern forming means called photolithography.
And a magnetic recording device equipped with this thin film magnetic head . A magnetic head having a magnetic circuit formed by using thin film technology is said to have an advantage in improving the data recording density, and is a type in which a permalloy metal piece or ferrite piece is wound. There is a lot of movement to replace the magnetic head. A typical structure of this thin film head is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 55-84019 and Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 55-840.
It is described in detail in Japanese Patent No. 20. JP-A-55-84
According to Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 019 and Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 55-84020, the yoke structure is composed of a magnetic pole front end region and a rear end region, and is composed of two layers of a magnetic material such as permalloy.
The magnetic pole tip regions of the upper and lower magnetic layers are equal to or slightly smaller than the track width of the magnetic recording medium and extend slightly in the normal direction to the magnetic recording medium. In the region, the widths of the upper and lower magnetic layers gradually increase. In such a thin film head magnetic circuit, in order to increase the data recording density,
It is a fundamentally important factor to reduce the thickness of the magnetic layer exposed on the operating surface of the magnetic head, that is, the thickness of the pole piece. However, when the same magnetic circuit is used for both writing and reading on the recording medium, the requirement for thin pole pieces may be a necessary and sufficient condition in order to achieve the high recording density described above. Absent. That is, at the time of writing, it is necessary to excite the magnetic circuit by the exciting current flowing in the conductor coil in order to generate a magnetic field required for writing in the recording medium arranged with a predetermined clearance from the operating surface. At this time, if the magnetic layer is thin, it is magnetically saturated and an effective magnetic field cannot be generated even if the exciting current is increased. Therefore, it is important to find the range of the magnetic layer thickness that can satisfy both writing and reading. However, in order to realize a high recording density, the recording medium tends to have a high coercive force, which necessitates the generation of a stronger magnetic field as a magnetic head, which satisfies both the above-mentioned writing and reproducing. There is a situation in which the problem that the magnetic layer thickness range is extremely narrowed or that the range cannot exist is highlighted. It is an object of the present invention to provide a thin film magnetic head having excellent recording and reproducing characteristics and a magnetic recording device equipped with this head . A thin film in which the thickness of at least the magnetic gap of the upper magnetic layer (second magnetic layer) is larger than the thickness of the lower magnetic layer (first magnetic layer). Information is recorded on and reproduced from a magnetic recording medium that moves relative to the thin film magnetic head using the magnetic head. When reproducing one magnetization reversal on the medium in the thin film head, the isolated reversal reproduction waveform shown in FIG. 1 is obtained. Unlike the conventional magnetic head made of bulk material, this reproduced waveform has an undershoot on both sides of the isolated waveform because the thickness of the magnetic layer exposed on the operating surface, that is, the pole piece thickness, is on the order of several μm. To do. When the undershoot of this solitary waveform is closely observed, the left and right undershoot amounts are different, and the author paid attention to this difference. That is, the undershoot amounts of the left side portion and the right side portion are different from the peak position of the reproduced waveform in FIG. The reason for this is that in the cross-sectional view of the general structure of the thin film magnetic head shown in FIG. 2, the first magnetic layer 1 extends in the direction perpendicular to the medium plane 3, and the second magnetic layer 2 is in the middle. This is due to the fact that it has a bent structure. In this isolated reproduction waveform, the side having a smaller amount of undershoot is the side having the second magnetic layer, and the side having a larger amount of undershoot is the side of the first magnetic layer. Here, let us mention how the difference in these undershoot amounts affects when the density is increased. Generally higher recording density reproduced waveform obtained when the is said that holds with considerable accuracy causes I overlaid case of isolated waveform. Now, consider the case where the next magnetization reversal came in a very short have interval to the next one of the magnetization reversal. The reproduced waveform by these two magnetization reversals is
FIG. 3 (a), Ru can be obtained as FIG. 3 (c) by not I overlapped case of two isolated waveforms (b). As shown by ΔT ₁ and ΔT ₂ in FIG. 3 (c), the position of the waveform peak that should originally be displaced, that is, a peak shift occurs. The magnitude of these peak shift amounts is determined by the magnitude of the slope of the tail of another isolated waveform corresponding to each isolated waveform peak position. Now, if the position of the peak of the next solitary wave is near crossing 0 first isolated waveform, said the gradient at that position is dependent on the size of the under over shoot biomass for the first isolated waveform Will be understood. Therefore △ when comparing the size of the T ₁ and △ T _2, a small peak on the side shifts of undershoot over chute △ T
₁ becomes small. FIG. 4 shows the relationship between the peak shifts ΔT ₁ and ΔT ₂ by varying the thickness of the pole piece.
This is for the same pole piece thickness from FIG is larger than the tendency △ T ₁ to △ T ₂ is dependent on it and the film thickness larger. This in order to decrease less of a peak shift from it can be seen that better to reduce the thickness of the first magnetic layer thickness is effective. That is, it is shown that the first magnetic layer should be thinner than the thicknesses of both the first and second magnetic layers should be reduced by the same amount. On the other hand, on the write side, as described above, it is necessary to generate a strong magnetic field on the operating surface of the magnetic head in order to magnetize the recording medium, and the magnetic path of the magnetic circuit is structured to prevent saturation as much as possible. It is important to take For this purpose, it is necessary to increase the saturation magnetic flux density of the magnetic layer that forms the magnetic path, and at the same time, it is important to increase the cross-sectional area of the magnetic path. Returning to the thin-film head cross-sectional structure diagram of FIG. 2 and looking at the magnetic path structure from this viewpoint, the slope portion 4 of the second magnetic layer becomes a problem. In general, vapor deposition from the top with a certain level difference,
When a film is formed by using a technique such as sputtering or plating, the throwing power of the slope portion is smaller than the film thickness formed on the flat surface. This tendency is particularly remarkable in the case of vapor deposition and sputtering, and the relative ratio of the film thickness between the flat surface and the slope portion, which is called the coverage factor, depends on the slope of the slope, and this slope angle is 3
In the case of around 0 °, it is generally 0.7 to 0.8. That is, in the thin film head structure, this slope is the smallest when the cross-sectional area is taken into consideration, and it can be said that this is where magnetic saturation is most likely to occur. Therefore, in order to use the second magnetic layer magnetically under the same conditions as the first magnetic layer, a value obtained by dividing the thickness of the second magnetic layer by the coverage factor, that is, the thickness of the first magnetic layer is 1 It is preferably about 0.2 to 1.4 times. First for both playback and writing
The reason why it is preferable to increase the thickness of the second magnetic layer rather than the thickness of the magnetic layer is explained. An embodiment of the present invention will be further described below. FIG. 5 shows a cross-sectional view of a thin film head for magnetic tape. The first magnetic layer 11 is sputtered to a thickness of 1.5 μm on the sapphire single crystal substrate 10 having excellent wear resistance and patterned into a predetermined shape. Further, an alumina film 12 having a magnetic gap length of 0.5 μm is formed and a planar spiral coil 13 is deposited and patterned.
Insulator 1 suitable for covering the irregularities of the conductor coil 13
4 is formed thereon, and the second magnetic layer 15 having a thickness of 2 μm is formed by sputtering so as to cover the conductor coil and the insulator and patterned into a predetermined shape. At this time, the first magnetic layer 11 and the second magnetic layer 1 are located on the side far from the operating surface of the magnetic circuit.
The alumina film is previously removed so that 5 is magnetically short-circuited. After that, a terminal portion (not shown) is formed and a protective layer 16 having a predetermined thickness is attached. After that, the plurality of aligned elements are polished until a predetermined gap depth (shown by a chain line) is obtained to obtain a magnetic head element. Here, the difference between the first magnetic layer thickness of 1.5 μm and the second magnetic layer thickness of 2 μm is that the coverage factor of the sputtered magnetic layer film in the above-mentioned structure is 0.75. Play 1.
It was decided by 5 ÷ 0.75 = 2. Using the magnetic head element obtained by such a method, two magnetization reversals were recorded on a magnetic tape medium having a coercive force of 600 Oe at intervals of 2.1 μm. The interval of magnetization reversal read at this time was 2.25 μm. On the other hand, a head having a thickness of 2 μm for both the first and second magnetic layers formed by the same method had a thickness of 2.8 μm. Further, both of the heads having a film thickness of 1.5 μm were about 2.1 μm, but it was found that the head output was very small and the magnetic path was saturated at the time of writing and it was not possible to write on the medium sufficiently. This clearly shows that changing the thicknesses of the first and second magnetic layers improves the characteristics of the thin film head, and demonstrates the effect of the present invention. It should be noted that the difference of 0.5 μm in thickness between both magnetic layers in this embodiment is a variation width when forming both magnetic layer films, usually ± 10% or more of the film thickness. Although not particularly described in the present embodiment, in general, in the magnetic circuit structure of the thin film head, the thickness of the magnetic body exposed on the operating surface, that is, the thickness of the pole piece is partially thickened internally for recording / reproducing. above gel means the efficiency
However, it is apparent from the principle of operation that the present invention can obtain the same effects as those described in the embodiments with the above structure. According to the present invention, it is possible to provide a magnetic recording device such as a magnetic tape device or a magnetic disk device which is excellent in writing characteristics and reproducing characteristics.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an isolated reproduction waveform of a thin film head. FIG. 2 is a schematic sectional view of a conventional thin film head. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a waveform synthesized with a thin film head isolated reproduction waveform for explaining the principle of the present invention. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a relationship between a pole piece thickness and a peak shift for explaining the present invention. FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view of a thin film head showing an embodiment of the present invention. [Description of Reference Signs] 11 ... First magnetic layer, 15 ... Second magnetic layer, 10 ... Substrate, 12 ... Alumina film, 13 ... Conductor coil, 14 ... Insulator, 16 ... Protective film.

   ────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued front page    (56) References GARY E. ROBERTS ET                 AL. "ORIGINS OF PL               AYBACK PULSE ASYMM               ETRY IN RECORDING               WITH THIN FILM DIS               K HEADS ", IEEE TRAN               SACTIONS ON MAGNET               ICS VOL. MAG-17, NO.               6, NOVEMBER 1981, P.M. 2902               -P. 2904                 Nikkei Electronics, (July 1980               7th), P. 110-P. 112

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1 . A substrate, a first magnetic layer formed on the substrate, a magnetic gap layer formed on the first magnetic layer, a conductor coil formed on the magnetic gap layer, and the magnetic gap layer A second magnetic layer formed on the conductor coil via an upper layer and an insulating layer, the second magnetic layer having a width equal to or slightly smaller than the width of the track of the magnetic recording medium. A front end region and a rear end region whose width gradually increases, the front end region being a flat portion located on the magnetic gap layer and a slope portion located at the riding portion of the conductor coil following the flat portion. And the thickness of the flat portion is larger than the thickness of the opposing first magnetic layer, and the thickness of the slope portion is substantially the same as or greater than the thickness of the first magnetic layer. Thin film magnetic head. 2 . Substrate, first magnetic layer formed on the substrate, magnetic gap layer formed on the first magnetic layer, conductor coil formed on the magnetic gap layer, and magnetic gap layer A second magnetic layer formed on the conductor coil via an upper layer and an insulating layer, the second magnetic layer having a width equal to or slightly smaller than the width of the track of the magnetic recording medium. A front end region and a rear end region whose width gradually increases, the front end region being a flat portion located on the magnetic gap layer and a slope portion located at the riding portion of the conductor coil following the flat portion. A thin film magnetic head in which the thickness of the flat portion is larger than the thickness of the opposing first magnetic layer and the thickness of the slope portion is substantially the same as or greater than the thickness of the first magnetic layer, Includes the thin film magnetic head and a magnetic recording medium that moves relative to the thin film magnetic head. The magnetic recording apparatus, characterized in that.