JP3609106B2 - Thin film magnetic head element assembly - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
[Industrial application fields]
The present invention relates to a thin film magnetic head element assembly in which a large number of thin film magnetic head elements are formed in alignment on a single wafer. More specifically, in such a thin film magnetic head element assembly, each element is arranged such that the distance between the electromagnetic conversion part of each element and the electromagnetic conversion part of the adjacent element is substantially equal in each electromagnetic conversion part. Thus, the photoresist coating thickness can be made uniform, particularly in the photolithography process for forming the upper magnetic film.
[0002]
[Prior art]
In manufacturing a thin film magnetic head, a thin film magnetic head assembly in which a large number of thin film magnetic head elements are formed in an aligned state on a wafer made of a ceramic structure is manufactured, and the assembly is cut and processed. A method of manufacturing a slider having a single element is employed.
[0003]
As a thin film magnetic head, for example, a floating thin film magnetic head shown in FIG. 3 is known. In the thin film magnetic head 1, two rail portions 201 and 202 are formed on a medium facing surface side of a slider 2 made of a ceramic structure at an interval, and the surfaces of the rail portions 201 and 202 have a flatness of hardness. In addition to the air bearing surfaces 203 and 204, the thin film magnetic head element 3 is formed at the end portion 205 of the rail portion 201 in the air outflow direction a. The thin film magnetic head element 3 includes an electromagnetic conversion portion 3A and two external conductor connecting pad portions 3B and 3C derived therefrom.
[0004]
FIG. 4 shows a general configuration example of the electromagnetic conversion unit 3A of the thin film magnetic head element 3 described above. The thin film magnetic head element 3 is a thin film element formed by using an integrated circuit manufacturing technique. In this figure, 31 is a lower magnetic film made of permalloy or the like, 32 is an insulating gap layer, 33 and 34 are conductor coil films, 35 to 37 are interlayer insulating films formed of photoresist or the like, and 38 is an upper magnetic film. The conductor coil films 33 and 34 of the thin-film magnetic head element 3 are conductively connected to external conductor connecting pads 3B and 3C formed on the surface of the protective film 4. As a thin-film magnetic head element, in addition to the in-plane recording / reproducing of this configuration, a perpendicular recording / reproducing element is also known.
[0005]
The thin film magnetic head having the above-described structure is manufactured by forming a large number of thin film magnetic head elements 3 on a wafer and then cutting them. That is, as shown in FIG. 5, the thin film magnetic head element 3 is aligned and supported on a wafer 5 serving as a slider, and the pad portions (3B, 3C) of each thin film magnetic head element are attached to the protective film 4 on the wafer 5. Then, the thin film magnetic head element assembly 6 is manufactured. The thin film magnetic head elements 3 are arranged in a matrix state.
[0006]
In order to take out the thin film magnetic head 1 from the wafer 5, first, the wafer 5 is cut at cutting positions (X1-X1 to Xn-Xn) set between the rows H1 to Hn, as shown in FIG. A line-shaped thin film magnetic head element assembly 1A is cut out. FIG. 6 shows the thin film magnetic head assembly 1A of the column H4 cut at the cutting position (X4-X4) and the cutting position (X5-X5). Thereafter, the cut thin film magnetic head element assembly 1A is subjected to polishing or the like, and then cut at cutting positions Y1 to Yn to obtain individual thin film magnetic heads 1.
[0007]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
However, the thin film magnetic head element assembly in which the thin film magnetic head elements are arranged as described above has the following problems. Referring to FIG. 7, when the thin film magnetic head elements 3 are arranged in a matrix state as in the prior art, the distance between the electromagnetic transducers 3A in the adjacent elements 3 is the column direction (X direction). And the row direction (Y direction) orthogonal thereto. Now, taking the element 3 (3) as an example in the figure, the center of the elements 3 (2) and 3 (4) adjacent to the electromagnetic conversion units 3 (2) A and 3 (4) A in the column direction will be described. The distances b and d are sufficiently equal to each other. On the other hand, the distances a and c between the centers of the elements 3 (5) and 3 (6) adjacent to each other in the row direction with the electromagnetic conversion units 3 (5) A and 3 (6) A are narrow.
[0008]
If the distance between the electromagnetic conversion portions differs depending on the direction, when the photoresist film is spin-coated in the process of forming the upper magnetic film or the like of the element 3, the resist film in the step portion or the like is formed in the row direction and the column direction. The flow resistance differs, and it becomes difficult to form a resist film having a uniform thickness. If the thickness of the resist film cannot be made uniform, there arises a problem that desired patterning cannot be performed. An object of the present invention is to eliminate such conventional problems.
[0009]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
Such an object is achieved by the present invention described in (1) below.
(1) A step of forming a photoresist film on a single wafer by spin coating, and a plurality of thin film magnetic head elements including an electromagnetic conversion portion and a pad portion for connecting an external conductor are arranged in a matrix. In the method of manufacturing a thin film magnetic head element assembly formed and formed with a protective film thereon,
A plurality of the thin film magnetic head elements are arranged in a column direction and a row direction,
Deriving the corresponding pad portion of each thin film magnetic head element in the same direction toward the column direction,
The thin film magnetic head elements belonging to each row are aligned in each row so that the center intervals of the electromagnetic transducers are equal,
The center of the electromagnetic conversion unit of two adjacent thin film magnetic head elements belonging to one row forms a rectangle, and the electromagnetic conversion unit of the thin film magnetic head element in the middle row is located at the face center position. The center of the
A method of manufacturing a thin film magnetic head element assembly, characterized in that the center distances of electromagnetic conversion portions between thin film magnetic head elements belonging to mutually adjacent rows are equalized when viewed from the face center position.
[0010]
[Action]
When the thin film magnetic head elements 3 are arranged on the wafer 5 as described above, the flow resistance of the photoresist film is increased on the wafer in the photoresist film coating process for forming the upper magnetic film and the like of the thin film magnetic head element. Can be substantially uniform in each direction.
[0011]
【Example】
In order to solve the above problems, according to the present invention, in a thin film magnetic head element assembly formed by aligning a number of thin film magnetic head elements on the surface of a single wafer, each thin film magnetic head element is arranged as follows. They are arranged on the wafer in a state.
[0012]
As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, in a thin film magnetic head element assembly 1 formed by aligning a number of thin film magnetic head elements 3 (m, n) on the surface of a single wafer 5, each thin film magnetic head element 3 (m, n) pad portions 3B and 3C are led out in the same direction toward the arrangement direction X of the thin film magnetic head elements, and the electromagnetic conversion unit 3A between adjacent thin film magnetic head elements belonging to mutually adjacent columns The center-to-center distances a, b, c, and d are made substantially equal.
[0013]
In order to make the center distances between the adjacent electromagnetic transducers 3A equal, as shown in FIG. 2, the thin film magnetic head elements 3 (m, n) are arranged in a staggered pattern in the row direction Y. do it. For example, the thin film head element 3 (2, 3) belonging to the column H2 will be mainly described. Elements belonging to different columns adjacent thereto are elements 3 (1, 2), 3 (1, 3) belonging to the column H1. ) And element 3 (3, 2), 3 (3, 3) belonging to column H3. From the center of the electromagnetic transducer 3A of the thin film magnetic head element 3 (2, 3), each of these elements 3 (1, 2), 3 (3, 2), 3 (3, 3) and 3 (1, 3) The elements are arranged in a staggered manner between adjacent columns so that the distances a, b, c, and d to the centers of the electromagnetic conversion parts are equal.
[0014]
In the embodiment described above, an example of a magnetic head that performs recording and reproduction by one electromagnetic transducer has been described. Recently, the use of an inductive-MR composite thin film magnetic head using an MR element for reproduction has been proposed. Has been. The present invention is naturally applicable to such an inductive-MR composite type thin film magnetic head. In this case, the inductive is derived from each MR element by one pad part, but the two leads constituting each pad part are distributed to the left and right with the center line passing through the electromagnetic conversion part as the center. Usually, it is made into a structured.
[0015]
【The invention's effect】
As described above, in the thin film magnetic head element assembly of the present invention, the pad portions of the respective thin film magnetic head elements are led out in the same direction toward the arrangement direction of the thin film magnetic head elements, and are arranged in adjacent rows. The distance between the centers of the electromagnetic transducers between adjacent thin-film magnetic head elements to which it belongs is made substantially equal. Therefore, according to the present invention, the coating thickness of the photoresist in the thin film forming process of each element can be made uniform in each portion, and thus a thin film magnetic head assembly having stable magnetic characteristics can be manufactured.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a perspective view schematically showing a thin film magnetic head element assembly according to the present invention.
2 is a partially enlarged plan view showing an array of thin film magnetic head elements of the thin film magnetic head element assembly of FIG. 1. FIG.
FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing a thin-film magnetic head element having a general configuration.
4 is a partial enlarged cross-sectional view showing an electromagnetic conversion part of the thin film magnetic head of FIG. 3;
FIG. 5 is a perspective view schematically showing a conventional thin film magnetic head element assembly.
6 is a perspective view showing a state where a row of thin film magnetic head assemblies are cut out from the thin film magnetic head element assembly of FIG. 5; FIG.
7 is an explanatory diagram showing an arrangement of thin film magnetic head elements of the thin film magnetic head element assembly of FIG. 5. FIG.
[Explanation of symbols]
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Thin film magnetic head element assembly 3 (m, n) ... Thin film magnetic head element 3a ... Electromagnetic conversion part 3B, 3C ... Pad part 5 ... Wafer

Claims (1)

Forming a photoresist film on a single wafer by spin coating, forming a plurality of thin film magnetic head elements including an electromagnetic conversion portion and a pad portion for connecting an external conductor in a matrix, In the method of manufacturing a thin film magnetic head element assembly on which a protective film is formed,
A plurality of the thin film magnetic head elements are arranged in a column direction and a row direction,
The corresponding pad portion of each thin film magnetic head element is led out in the same direction toward the column direction,
The thin film magnetic head elements belonging to each row are aligned in each row so that the center intervals of the electromagnetic transducers are equal,
The center of the electromagnetic conversion unit of two adjacent thin film magnetic head elements belonging to one row forms a rectangle, and the electromagnetic conversion unit of the thin film magnetic head element in the middle row is located at the face center position. The center of the
A method of manufacturing a thin film magnetic head element assembly, characterized in that the center distances of electromagnetic conversion portions between thin film magnetic head elements belonging to mutually adjacent rows are equalized when viewed from the face center position.

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