JPH06325340A - Production of slider for magnetic head device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent the redeposition due to ion etching on the surface where magnetic head elements are formed, by covering the surface where magnetic head elements are formed with a protective film before an ion etching process and then removing the protective film after etching. CONSTITUTION:After plural numbers of magnetic head elements are formed on a wafer by thin film technique, the wafer is cut into several bars 10 in such a manner that magnetic head elements are arranged in a line. Then rail part 15 is formed by machining on the ABS surface of the bar 10 and a Cu film 16 is formed as a protective film on the surface where magnetic head elements are formed. A resist film 17 having a specified etching pattern is formed on the ABS surface of the rail part 15 and ion etching is done for the ABS surface to etch according to the pattern to form a stepped plane 19 on the rail part 15. Then the film 16 is removed. By covering the surface where magnetic head elements are formed with a protective film, the redeposition by ion etching can be prevented.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing a slider for a flying type magnetic head device, and more particularly to a method of forming a predetermined pattern by ion etching on the surface of a slider facing a magnetic medium. Regarding the method.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A slider of a floating magnetic head device has a recording / reproducing magnetic head element at its rear end, and the surface of a magnetic medium such as a magnetic disk moving at high speed and the air bearing surface (ABS surface) of this slider. Levitation force is generated by the air flow that is pushed between and. The flying height of the slider is adjusted to an appropriate value by balancing this flying force with the spring force applied to the slider from the outside.

When a slider of this type is attached to and supported by the other end of a swing arm which rotates with one end as a fulcrum, a difference in relative moving speed of the magnetic disk with respect to the slider and a skew cause a disc inside the disk. The flying height differs between the peripheral portion and the outer peripheral portion. By forming a shallow step plane on the ABS surface of the levitation rail that is provided on the surface side of the slider that faces the magnetic medium and extends in the magnetic medium traveling direction, lateral pressure is generated and such skew and peripheral speed are generated. There is known a technique called TPC in which the difference in the flying height due to the above is compensated so that the inner and outer circumferences of the magnetic disk have the same flying height (for example, US Pat. No. 4,673,996 ( Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 61-27808
7), U.S. Pat. No. 4,870,519 and Japanese Examined Patent Publication No. 63-212271).

A negative pressure slider forming technique is also known in which the ABS surface of the slider is partially processed to form a negative pressure generating concave portion in order to generate a negative pressure that attracts the slider toward the surface of the magnetic medium. (For example, US Pat. No. 4,564,585 (corresponding to Japanese Patent Publication No. 5-8488)). The negative pressure slider is for generating a negative pressure by the air flow so that the spring force applied to the slider from the outside is small, thereby reducing the friction between the magnetic medium and the slider at the time of starting.

Furthermore, although it is similar to the step plane for flying height compensation (hereinafter referred to as TPC step), the ABS surface of the flying rail is partially ground to form its shape into a predetermined pattern. The shape rail forming technology for controlling the flying characteristics of the slider by doing so is already known.

In the above-mentioned TPC step, negative pressure generating recess or shape rail, a levitation rail is formed by mechanical grinding on the ABS surface side of a bar in which a plurality of magnetic head elements formed by thin film technology are arranged in a line. After that, it is usually formed by performing ion etching (ion milling) from the ABS surface side. The reason for using the ion etching process is that the depth to be ground is extremely shallow and highly precise pattern formation is required.

[0007]

However, when slider processing is performed by such ion etching, a part of the mixture of the mask material, milling jig constituent material, etc. generated by the etching wraps around the side surface of the slider and re-deposits. It becomes attached and cannot be easily removed.
In particular, since a magnetic head element and a bonding pad are formed on the rear end surface of the slider, if such a redeposited substance is formed, bonding to the pad becomes impossible, which is a big problem. Become.

Therefore, the present invention provides a method of manufacturing a slider for a magnetic head device, which prevents re-deposits from being formed on the magnetic head element forming surface by ion etching.

[0009]

According to the present invention, there is provided a method of manufacturing a slider for a magnetic head device, which comprises an ion etching step for forming a predetermined pattern by ion etching on a surface side facing a magnetic medium. A magnetic head device including a protective film forming step performed before the etching step to cover at least the magnetic head element forming surface of the slider with a protective film, and a removing step performed after the ion etching step to remove the protective film. A method of manufacturing a slider for use is provided.

It is desirable that the protective film forming step is a step of forming a Cu film by vapor deposition.

In that case, it is preferable that the removing step is a step of removing the Cu film with ammonium persulfate.

The protective film forming step may be a step of forming a DLC (diamond-like carbon) film or a resist film.

[0013]

After the plurality of magnetic head elements are formed on the wafer by the thin film technique, they are cut into bars so that the magnetic head elements are arranged in a line. A levitation rail is formed on the ABS surface side of this bar by mechanical grinding, and a protective film such as a Cu film, a DLC film or a resist film is formed on the magnetic head element formation surface, and then ion etching is performed from the ABS surface side to a predetermined pattern. Formation. Since it is covered with the protective film, reattachments due to ion etching are not directly formed on the magnetic head element forming surface. After the ion etching step, this protective film is removed.

[0014]

1 (A) to 1 (C), 2 (D) to (F), and 3 (G) are process diagrams showing one embodiment of a method of manufacturing a slider for a magnetic head device according to the present invention. Is.

After forming a large number of magnetic head elements by a thin film technique on a wafer made of a ceramic material such as Al ₂ O ₃ --TiC, the wafer is cut into a plurality of bars so that the magnetic head elements are arranged in a line. . FIG. 1A shows one bar 10 obtained by cutting in this way, 11 is a plurality of magnetic head elements formed on a surface 12 which is the rear end surface of the slider, and 11a is each magnetic head element. Bonding pad made of Au, for example, 1
3 represents the ABS surface, respectively.

As shown in FIG. 1B, the cut bar 10 has its ABS on the flat surface of a dedicated grinding jig 14.
The surface 13 is bonded and fixed so that the surface 13 becomes the upper surface. In this state, the surface of the ABS 13 is ground to adjust the throat height. Next, groove processing is performed from the ABS surface 13 side, and as shown in the enlarged perspective view of FIG.
5 is formed.

After the ABS surface 13 is polished (polished), the bar 10 is separated from the grinding jig 14 and washed. Then, as shown in FIG. 2D, a Cu film 16 as a protective film is formed only on the magnetic head forming surface 12 of the bar 10 or on the magnetic head forming surface 12 and other necessary surfaces except the ABS surface 13. Are formed by vapor deposition.

The thickness of the Cu film 16 is controlled according to the amount of ion etching, but when the thickness to be etched away is about 1 μm, the Cu film thickness is 1000 to 300.
In the case of about 0 Å, and about 3 μm, the Cu film thickness is about 6000 to 10000 Å. Since a Cu film having such a film thickness can be formed in a short time, the vapor deposition method has the advantage that the film forming rate is very high and the film thickness is very easily controlled. Note that C
The greatest advantage of the u film vapor deposition is that the Cu film has excellent straightness during film formation and hardly wraps around the side surface (especially ABS surface 13), so that the protective film can be formed only on the magnetic head forming surface 12. It is in. The Cu film is most preferably formed by vapor deposition for the above-mentioned reason, but it is obvious that ion film sputtering or the like is also possible.

Next, the bar 10 is attached to an exposure jig (not shown), and as shown in FIG. 2E, a resist film 17 having a predetermined punching pattern is formed on the ABS of the rail portion 15.
Form on the surface. For example, a dry film resist is laminated on an exposure jig to which the bar 10 is fixed, and the mask pattern is exposed on the bar by irradiating ultraviolet rays through a mask having a predetermined pattern, which is developed, washed with water and dried. By doing so, the resist film 17 in which the pattern 18 to be etched is opened as a cut pattern is formed.

Next, the bar 10 is removed from the exposure jig and attached to a milling jig (not shown), and the ABS surface of the rail portion 15 is ion-etched. Ion etching is performed by an ion beam which is not perpendicular to the surface to be etched but is tilted to some extent, for example, about 0 to 60 °, and the milling jig is rotated about an axis perpendicular to the surface to be etched. To be By this milling, as shown in FIG. 2 (F), the portion of the punching pattern 18 is scraped off, and a step plane 19 for controlling the levitation characteristic is obtained on the rail portion 15.

After that, as shown in FIG. 3G, the Cu film 16 as a protective film is removed. The removal of the Cu film 16 is performed by ammonium persulfate that does not attack Al ₂ O ₃ or Au which is a constituent material of the slider. Needless to say, the Cu film may be removed by another method having the same function.

Next, after the resist film 17 is peeled and dried, the bar 10 is removed from the milling jig and washed. Next, the bar 10 is adhesively fixed to a grinding jig (not shown) and cut into individual sliders, and then each slider is removed from the grinding jig and washed to obtain a final slider.

As described above, according to this embodiment, since the protective film is directly deposited on the re-deposition preventing surface such as the magnetic head element forming surface before the ion etching process, the substance removed by the ion etching. It is possible to reliably prevent the redeposition of the metal on the surface. Further, since the protective film is removed by the release agent that does not attack the slider material and the other constituent members of the slider after the ion etching processing, the other slider constituent members are not adversely affected.

In the above-mentioned embodiment, the case where the ion milling process for forming the step plane for controlling the levitation characteristic on the rail section is provided is described. However, for forming the TPC step or the negative pressure generating concave section described above. It is needless to say that the same can be applied to the case including the ion milling step of.

Although the Cu film is used as the protective film in the above-mentioned embodiments, a protective film may be a DLC (diamond-like carbon) film such as amorphous hydrogenated carbon (see Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 4-276367) or a resist film. Can also be used for. The DLC film can be formed by, for example, ion beam sputtering, sputtering, or plasma CVD, and removed by oxygen plasma ashing. The resist film is applied by, for example, dipping or spin coating, and is removed by a solvent such as acetone.

It is obvious that the protective film may be formed not only after the wafer is cut into the bars but also on the front surface and the back surface of the magnetic head element or the like formed in the wafer state.

[0027]

As described in detail above, according to the present invention, the protective film forming step of performing the ion etching step before the step of coating at least the magnetic head element forming surface of the slider with the protective film and the ion etching step are performed. Since it includes a removing step which is performed later to remove the protective film, there is no inconvenience that the substance blown off by the ion etching redeposits on the magnetic head element forming surface.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a part of steps in an embodiment of a manufacturing method according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing a part of the process in one embodiment of the manufacturing method according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing a part of the process in one embodiment of the manufacturing method according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 10 bar 11 magnetic head element 11a bonding pad 13 ABS surface 14 grinding jig 15 rail part 16 Cu film 17 resist film 18 punching pattern 19 step plane

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Shigeki Tanemura 1-13-1, Nihonbashi, Chuo-ku, Tokyo TDK Corporation

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A method of manufacturing a slider for a magnetic head device, comprising an ion etching step of forming a predetermined pattern by ion etching on a surface side facing a magnetic medium, the slider being carried out before the ion etching step. Of a magnetic head device forming surface, and a protective film forming step of covering at least a magnetic head element forming surface with a protective film; and a removing step of removing the protective film which is performed after the ion etching step. Production method. 2. The manufacturing method according to claim 1, wherein the protective film forming step is a step of forming a Cu film by vapor deposition. 3. The manufacturing method according to claim 2, wherein the removing step is a step of removing the Cu film with ammonium persulfate. 4. The manufacturing method according to claim 1, wherein the protective film forming step is a step of forming a DLC film. 5. The manufacturing method according to claim 1, wherein the protective film forming step is a step of forming a resist film.