JPH08227506A - Manufacture of recording/reproduction composite type thin-film magnetic head - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To obtain a method for manufacturing a recording/reproducing composite thin film magnetic head suitable for high density recording in which the recording track width can be controlled accurately and a reproducible process can be designed. SOLUTION: At the time of manufacturing a recording/reproducing composite thin film magnetic head, an upper insulation layer 9 is formed of photoresist. An upper magnetic layer 6 is formed thereon and subjected to patterning at a width approximating the width of track before producing a pole chip 10 by ion beam etching.

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 combined recording / reproducing thin film magnetic head, and more particularly, when manufacturing a thin film magnetic head for an HDD (Hard Disk Drive), an upper photoresist (PR) is used. By defining the track width of the recording head with the insulating layer, depositing the magnetic material for the magnetic pole on it, and processing the pole tip by dry etching, it is possible to accurately control the recording track width and increase the recording head width. The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing a combined recording / reproducing thin film magnetic head suitable for density recording and capable of reproducible process design.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Although many types of magnetic heads for HDD have been used so far, recently, in order to meet the demand for a rapid increase in recording density, the existing thin film inductive type is used. Since there is a limit only in the head, the use of the thin film induction type / magnetoresistive type composite head adopting the magnetoresistive effect as the reproducing function is increasing.

In such a composite head, recording / recording
Since the width of the reproduction track can be made smaller than the width of the recording track by performing the reproduction with another head, it is possible to minimize the decrease in the reproduction output due to the deviation of the track position during reproduction and the noise due to the adjacent track. . However, as the track density increases, the width of a unit track also decreases, which causes problems in the process of actually manufacturing the head.

To date, permalloy plating films have been widely used as magnetic pole materials. In this case, it is convenient to control the shape of the photoresist to obtain a cross section that is almost vertical.

However, as the recording density increases, the coercive force increases.
(high coercivity) Along with the adoption of recording media, a high saturation magnetic flux density (high B _S ) material containing iron as a main component is used for the magnetic poles, which enables ion beam etching (IBE) without using electroplating A dry etching method such as reactive ion etching (RIE) is used.

On the other hand, when a narrow track magnetic pole is processed by the dry etching method, due to the characteristics of the dry etching itself,
It is difficult to process the magnetic pole shape as designed,
In particular, when the track width is smaller than or close to the film thickness, the recording characteristics are further seriously affected.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory view showing a manufacturing process of a conventional thin film magnetic head. Reference numeral 1 is a common pole, 2 is a recording gap, 3 and 5 are photoresist insulating layers, 4 is a recording coil, and 6 is a recording coil. Upper magnetic layer, 7 is photoresist mask,
8 is a pole chip.

As shown in FIG. 4, in the manufacturing process of the conventional recording / reproducing composite type thin film magnetic head, photoresist insulating layers 3 and 5 are formed above and below the recording coil 4, and a back gap is formed. After etching, the upper magnetic layer 6 was formed by sputtering, and ion milling was performed using the photoresist mask 7 to complete the pole tip 8.

[0009]

As described above, when the track width is close to or less than the thickness of the thin film and the dry etching method is used instead of the electroplating method, the following result is obtained. There is such a problem.

In the case of ion beam etching, the angle at which the ion beam strikes the substrate, that is, the incident angle is usually 30 to 60.
At °, it is unavoidable that the etched cross section has such an angle. In particular, when processing a narrow track, it is difficult to obtain an accurate track width, and if the mask size is reduced in consideration of this angle, the cross-sectional area of the pole tip part will decrease and the saturation phenomenon of magnetic flux will occur. It has a fatal effect on recording performance.

In the case of reactive ion etching, there are attempts to process narrow tracks by such an etching method, but basically chlorine-based (Cl ₂ or CCl ₄ ) gas should be used as an etching gas. Therefore,
In practice, it is difficult to use because there are problems such as residue processing after etching and usage restrictions due to environmental problems.

FIBE (Focused Ion Beam Etching)
Is a method that focuses the ion beam and processes only a specific part into a desired shape, which is a very effective method. However, since each clip must be processed separately, productivity decreases, so R & D This is a method that can be used only (for example, 12000 50% sliders for a 6 ″ wafer).

On the other hand, there is a lift-off method, which is generally used when the thickness of the film to be processed is much smaller than the thickness of the photoresist (usually 1/4 to
Since it is used for 1/5), there is a problem that it is difficult to use if the film to be processed has a unit of μm as in this case.

In the conventional manufacturing process shown in FIG. 4, since the pole tip 8 cannot obtain a side wall perpendicular to the gap surface, there is a problem that a desired design cross-sectional area cannot be obtained. .

[0015]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Therefore, an object of the present invention is not only to solve the above-mentioned problems, but also to maintain an accurate track width and magnetic pole shape, and to improve the productivity of a combined recording / reproducing thin film magnetic head. It is to provide a manufacturing method of.

[0016]

A method of manufacturing a combined recording / reproducing thin film magnetic head of the present invention for achieving the above object uses a photoresist when manufacturing the recording / reproducing composite thin film magnetic head. Form an upper insulating layer on top of it, form an upper magnetic layer on it, pattern photoresist on the upper magnetic layer to a width close to the track width, and then ion beam etching to make a pole tip. It is characterized by having done.

[0017]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION The structure of the present invention will be described below in more detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is an explanatory view showing a main manufacturing process of the thin film magnetic head of the present invention, showing a part different from the explanatory view showing the manufacturing process of the conventional thin film magnetic head shown in FIG. 1 to 4, reference numeral 1 is a shared pole, 2 is a recording gap, 3 and 5 are photoresist insulating layers, 4 is a recording coil, 6 is an upper magnetic layer, 7 is a photoresist mask, and 8 and 10 are poles. Chips, 9 are upper insulating layers, and 11 and 12 are flux flow directions.

As described above, in the manufacturing process of the conventional recording / reproducing composite type thin film magnetic head shown in FIG. 4, the photoresist insulating layers 3 and 5 are formed above and below the recording coil 4.
After etching the back gap, the upper magnetic layer 6 is formed by sputtering, and ion milling is performed using the photoresist mask 7 to complete the pole tip 8. In the manufacturing process of 1., since the pole chip 8 cannot obtain a side wall perpendicular to the gap surface, there is a problem that a desired design cross-sectional area cannot be obtained. However, in the present invention, as shown in FIG. First, the upper insulating layer 9 is formed by using a photoresist.
After forming, the upper magnetic layer 6 is sputtered thereon. At this time, the front surface of the photoresist is formed such that the gap of the photoresist becomes the track width of the recording head.

Next, after patterning a photoresist having a width close to the width of the track on the upper magnetic layer 6, etching is performed by ion milling to complete the pole tip 10.

At this time, the width of the photoresist pattern is set to about 1.5 to 3 times the actual track width and the side recording is performed.
writing) should be minimized. On the other hand, even if the side wall after etching has an angle, it does not affect the recording performance because it is not an actual track.

2 (A) and 2 (B) show an essential part of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 2 (A), an upper photoresist insulating layer 9 is formed, and FIG. As shown in (B), ion beam etching of the upper magnetic layer enables more reproducible etching because there is no critical dimension during etching.

On the other hand, FIG. 3 shows the operating principle of the thin film magnetic head manufactured according to the present invention, and the operating principle of the thin film magnetic head will be described based on this.

As shown in FIG. 3, when the pole tip 10 is formed according to the present invention, some flux leaks in the flux flowing direction 12 shown by an arrow. Since the structure is like a yoke, most of the flux acts as a recording flux through the pole tip portion corresponding to the track width, as in the flux flowing direction 11 shown by the arrow.

Generally, as a method of reducing side recording (recording on a portion other than the recording track),
In the case of an inductive head, the tip widths of the upper and lower magnetic layers are made almost the same due to the pole trimming phenomenon. However, in the case of a magnetoresistive / inductive composite head, the lower magnetic layer also serves as a protective film for the magnetoresistive element, so that the width of the lower magnetic layer can be reduced to approximate the width of the upper magnetic layer. Can not. Therefore, in the case of a composite head, side recording to be recorded on a portion other than the recording track should be accepted to some extent. This is because the width of the reproducing track is reduced to be smaller than the width of the recording track. ta
lk) can be minimized.

[0026]

EXAMPLES The present invention will be described in more detail below with reference to Examples, but it goes without saying that this does not limit the scope of the present invention.

In this embodiment, first, AZp4400 (trade name) is used for the upper photoresist insulating layer, and it is used under vacuum.
Cured at 50 ° C. for 6 hours. At this time, the width of the track is 2
It was made to be μm.

Next, Fe-1% is used as the magnetic film for the pole.
N ₂ reactive sputtering was performed using an Al target. At this time, the N ₂ / Ar flow rate was 5%, the gas pressure was 2 mTorr, the total thickness of the magnetic film was 2 μm, and Al ₂ O ₃ was 0.1 μm thick as a spacer in the middle. Then, the high frequency characteristics can be improved by sputtering.

Finally, after forming a photoresist pattern having a pattern width of 3.5 μm, 500 mA, 700 e
The pole tip was completed by ion milling with V at an incident angle of 45 ° to etch the upper magnetic layer.

On the other hand, by going through such steps,
The track width and magnetic pole shape could be maintained exactly as designed.

[0031]

Therefore, according to the present invention, when the width of the recording track is close to or smaller than the thickness of the magnetic layer, the recording track width can be accurately controlled and the track density can be improved. It is suitable for recording and has the advantage that it is possible to design a reproducible process because it is possible to proceed with a process with high productivity while minimizing the influence of the pole tip sidewall due to dry etching. That is, a remarkably excellent effect is brought about.

[Brief description of drawings]

1 (A-1) (A-2) to 1 (C) are explanatory views showing main manufacturing steps of a thin film magnetic head of the present invention.

FIG. 2 (A) and FIG. 2 (B) are explanatory views showing a main part of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing an operating principle of a thin film magnetic head manufactured according to the present invention.

4 (A-1) (A-2) to FIG. 4 (F) are explanatory views showing a manufacturing process of a conventional thin film magnetic head.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 common pole 2 recording gap 3, 5 photoresist 4 recording coil 6 upper magnetic layer 7 photoresist mask 8, 10 pole tip 9 upper insulating layer 11, 12 flux flow direction

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. When manufacturing a combined recording / reproducing thin-film magnetic head, a photoresist is used to form an upper insulating layer, an upper magnetic layer is formed on the upper insulating layer, and a track width is formed on the upper magnetic layer. A method of manufacturing a combined recording / reproducing thin-film magnetic head, characterized in that a pole tip is manufactured by ion beam etching after performing photoresist patterning having a width similar to that of FIG. 2. The track width of the upper insulating layer has a width of 1.5 as etched by ion beam etching.
2. The method for manufacturing a combined read / write thin-film magnetic head according to claim 1, wherein the method is about 3 times larger.