JPH06251351A - Manufacture of floating magnetic head - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To facilitate formation of a slider rail having complicated shape by grinding the surface of a slider opposing to a magnetic disc and then forming the slider rail by sputtering. CONSTITUTION:The surface of a slider 1 opposing a magnetic disc is ground except a magnetic head element forming part 6 and a resist is applied thereon in a predetermined pattern and then slider rails 3, 4 are formed by sputtering. When the slider rails 3, 4 are formed by sputtering, a slider rail can be formed into an arbitrary shape and thereby a slider having rail shape excellent in floating characteristics can be manufactured. Target material being employed in sputtering is preferably same as the slider material.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing a floating magnetic head device having a slider having a slider rail formed on a surface facing a magnetic disk and used in a hard disk drive device or the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a hard disk drive device for recording or reproducing information on a hard disk or the like, in order to avoid abrasion damage due to contact between the magnetic head and the surface of the magnetic disk, the magnetic head contacts the magnetic disk at the time of starting and stopping, A so-called contact start / stop type flying magnetic head device is used in which the magnetic head floats and runs with a minute gap above the surface of a magnetic disk that rotates at a high speed during recording and reproduction of information.

In the above contact start / stop type floating magnetic head device, a slider having a magnetic head element is attached to a suspension composed of a leaf spring, and the suspension is attached to an actuator arm. Is. Generally, in the slider, two planar rectangular slider rails are formed at the end of the surface facing the magnetic disk so as to project in parallel with the slider traveling direction. And this rail surface is
The air bearing surface is a surface for receiving the air flow generated on the magnetic disk surface, and a groove portion called an air groove into which the air flow flows is formed between the slider rails.

[0004]

By the way, in a magnetic recording / reproducing apparatus such as a hard disk drive, the magnetic recording / reproducing apparatus itself should be miniaturized, and the recording density should be increased for a magnetic disk having a high coercive force. The development is in progress to achieve such things. Along with this, in the above-mentioned flying type magnetic head device, there is an urgent need to realize the downsizing of the slider and the lowering of the flying height of the magnetic disk.

However, when attempting to miniaturize the slider, there is a problem that the contact start / stop characteristics are deteriorated because the pitch amount is reduced. Also, the flying height of the slider, the pitch amount, and the roll state,
That is, if the flying posture is not always stable, the flying height of the slider cannot be reduced.

In order to stabilize the floating posture and reduce the flying height, it is not possible to use the two-rail slider rail as described above, so it is necessary to make the rail shape more complicated. However, rails with complicated shapes
Unlike the conventional slider rail, it cannot be easily formed by excavating with a polishing device.

Therefore, the present invention has been proposed in view of such conventional circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide a method of manufacturing a floating magnetic head device in which a slider rail can be easily formed into a free shape. .

[0008]

The present invention has been proposed in order to achieve the above-mentioned object, and a method of manufacturing a floating magnetic head device according to the present invention is characterized in that a surface of a slider facing a magnetic disk is magnetic. It is characterized in that the slider rail is formed on the ground surface by sputtering after the head element forming portion is ground.

The target material used for sputtering is the same as the slider material.

[0010]

When the slider rail is formed by sputtering, it is possible to cope with a complicated shape that was impossible by machining. Therefore, it is possible to create a rail-shaped slider with excellent floating characteristics,
It is possible to manufacture a levitation type magnetic head device that is downsized and has a low flying height.

[0011]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Specific embodiments to which the present invention is applied will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings.

First, an example of the structure of a floating magnetic head device produced by applying the present invention will be described. The levitation type magnetic head device of this embodiment is equipped with a thin film magnetic head and is composed of a slider 1 and a magnetic head element 2 as shown in FIG.

The slider 1 is made of, for example, Al ₂ O ₃ T.
It is made of a non-magnetic material such as iC, and is formed in a flat rectangular flat plate shape. A magnetic head element forming portion 6 is formed so as to project in the traveling direction of the slider 1, that is, the rear end portion in the air introducing direction shown by the arrow X in FIG. 1, and the portion other than the magnetic head element forming portion 6 is formed. In
A pair of arbitrarily shaped rails 3 and 4 are formed to project along the air introduction direction X. In the present embodiment, in order to display on the drawing that the rails 3 and 4 have a complicated shape, the rails 3 and 4 are formed with a constricted portion or the like to have a so-called wavy shape. This shape itself has no meaning, and may be arbitrarily designed for the purpose of improving the flying posture such as the flying height, roll and pitch.

An air bearing surface (abbreviated as ABS hereinafter) is formed over the entire surfaces 3a and 4a of the rails 3 and 4 facing the magnetic disks. The ABSs 3a and 4a and the magnetic disks are formed. The rigidity of the air layer between and is increased, and the slider 1 can be levitated above the magnetic disk with a minute gap.

An air inlet groove 5 is formed between the rail 3 and the rail 4 as a groove having a predetermined depth from the front end 1b in the traveling direction to the rear end 1c in the traveling direction. Further, as described above, the magnetic head element 2 is formed in the magnetic head element forming portion 6 at the rear end 1c of the slider in the traveling direction with the magnetic gap g facing the magnetic disk facing surface 6a. As the magnetic head element 2, for example, a so-called thin film magnetic head in which a magnetic film laminated on a substrate constitutes a closed magnetic circuit as a magnetic core is suitable.

The floating magnetic head device described above was manufactured as follows. First, as shown in FIG. 2, the magnetic head element forming substrate 8 was adhered to the slider material 9, and this was fixed on the jig 10 so that the gap g of the magnetic head became the upper surface. Then, the thin film magnetic head formed on the magnetic head element forming substrate 8 was ground using a surface grinder or the like until the depth was about 5 μm. Further, as shown in FIG. 3, one end of the rotating grindstone 11 is aligned with the arrow a, and the upper surface 9a of the slider material 9 excluding the adhesion portion 9c with the magnetic head element forming substrate 8 is h in FIG. It was ground to the depth indicated by. In this embodiment, the height of the rails 3 and 4 to be formed later is assumed, and the depth h is set to about 25 μm in order to make it deeper than this. The slider block 14 was obtained as described above.

After cleaning the slider block 14, as shown in a sectional view in FIG. 4 and a plan view in FIG. 5, the upper surface 8a of the magnetic head element forming substrate 8 and the upper surface 9b of the ground slider material 9 are shown. (Slider rail forming surface 9
A resist was applied to b) in a predetermined pattern. Then, the slider block 1 on which the resist 13 is applied
For No. 4, rails were formed using a device as shown in FIG.

The apparatus 20 described above includes a support base 19 for supporting the slider block 14, a target 16 made of the same material as the slider material 9, and an opening in a vacuum chamber 17 which is evacuated from the exhaust port 18 and has a vacuum inside. It comprises a shutter 15 for controlling the start and stop of the spatter by opening and closing the part.
Particles are attached.

Then, the coating film formed on the portion where the resist 13 was applied was peeled off by a lift-off method and cut into a predetermined slider width, and a coating film was formed only on the portion where the resist 13 was not provided by sputtering. Rails 3 and 4 as shown in FIG. 1 were formed.

Since the method of manufacturing the floating magnetic head device of the present invention forms the rail by sputtering as described above, it can be applied to any shape of the rail and is shown in the embodiment. It is not limited to the construction of the slider of the structure. The present invention can be applied not only to a conventional slider having a planar rectangular rail but also to a slider having three rails and a slider having a complicated shape.

[0021]

As is apparent from the above description, sputtering can process a slider into a complicated shape that was impossible by machining. As a result, a rail-shaped slider having excellent flying characteristics can be easily created, so that it is possible to manufacture a flying-type magnetic head device that is downsized and lowered in flying height.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a configuration example of a slider.

FIG. 2 is a flow chart showing a manufacturing process of a slider,
FIG. 7 is a perspective view showing a step of supporting a slider material, to which a magnetic head element forming substrate is bonded, on a jig.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing a step of performing grinding.

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view showing a step of providing a resist on a slider block.

FIG. 5 is a plan view showing a step of providing a resist on a slider block.

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram showing a configuration of a sputtering apparatus.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 ... Slider 2 ... Magnetic head element 3, 4 ... Rail 5 ... Air inflow groove 6 ... Magnetic head element forming portion 8 ... Magnetic head element forming substrate 9 ... Slider Material 10 ... Jig 11 ... Whetstone 13 ... Resist 14 ... Slider block 15 ... Shutter 16 ... Target 17 ... Vacuum chamber 18 ... Exhaust port 19 ... Support Stand 20: Sputtering device

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A method for manufacturing a floating magnetic head device, comprising: grinding a surface of a slider facing a magnetic disk, leaving a magnetic head element forming portion, and then forming a slider rail on the ground surface by sputtering. 2. The method of manufacturing a floating magnetic head device according to claim 1, wherein the target material used for sputtering is the same as the slider material.