JPS5888815A - Production of thin film magnetic head - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To convert easily an upper magnetic matter into a pattern of a prescribed shape, by forming a photoresist layer so as to eliminate the difference of level at a front gap part for the photoresist which is used to form the upper magnetic matter of a thin film magnetic head. CONSTITUTION:An insulated layer 32, a lower magnetic matter 33 of ''Permalloy '', etc., an insulated layer 34 serving as a gap, a level difference eliminating layer 37 of an organic material, and an upper magnetic matter 38 of NiFe, etc. are formed on a substrate 31. Then the 1st photoresist layer 39 is coated with 1/3 thicknesses T2 and T1 compared with the height of the level difference A of the front gap part. A metallic thin film of Ti, Cr or Al is formed on the layer 39 to be used as a mask material when the layer 39 is etched with an ion. Then the 2nd photoresist layer is formed on the mtallic thin film. A prescribed pattern is formed by an ion eithing process in an atmosphere of O2 and Ar. In such a way, a thin film magnetic head is obtained in an easy way.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing a thin magnetic head used in a magnetic recording device and the like, and particularly relates to a method of forming an upper column.

Usukuin used for practical use in close fist! FIG. 1 shows the configuration of typical elements of a magnetic head.

In step 111m, an insulating layer 12t such as a lumen 1208 is formed on the substrate 11 by sputtering or the like, and then a soft material such as permalloy is formed to form the lower ffl injection body 13. Thereafter, an insulating layer 14 of Al, (j, etc.) having a predetermined thickness is formed to form a gap.Then, the insulating layer in the rear gap BB is removed by etching.

Thereafter, an organic layer 15 is formed to eliminate the step of the soft magnetic material 130 that will become the lower a-column, and a predetermined amount is formed. ! Then, a conductive film is formed to form a coil 16, an organic layer 17 is again formed on it, and a heat treatment is performed at a predetermined temperature in the same manner as the organic layer 15.I! Next, a soft magnetic material 18 made of permalloy material is formed into an upper magnetic material having a predetermined shape, and a thin wire magnetic head is constructed. f#, in FIG. 1, the last-formed barrier 5isi consisting of AI, Oa, etc. is omitted.

This machine is thin 111! One major problem with the process of forming the soft magnetic material 18, which becomes the upper magnetic material, into a predetermined shape in manufacturing the magnetic head is that, due to the structure of the thin 1llal magnetic head,
11 Indicated by arrow A in the figure, the soft i
This arises from the necessity of processing the aa body into a fine pattern. In other words, a soft iIl column 18 made of permalloy or the like is formed by spin coating with photoresist for pattern formation of the upper magnetic material. The photoresist remains as traces around the area, making it difficult to form an accurate photoresist pattern, and as a result, it is extremely difficult to etch the upper iIl column into a regular shape. Moreover, when performing ion etching in an At atmosphere to form a fine pattern of permalloy, the etching required as a photoresist is usually performed by etching 50% of the permalloy material to be etched.
Because of the 0x increase, the aforementioned photoresist build-up became even more noticeable, which greatly impeded the reliability and reproducibility of the manufacturing process of the thin IIfIk head. Also, the above 7
In order to avoid photoresist remaining, if the exposure time or current time is set at 1 hour, overexposure or excessive airflow will occur in other parts of the photoresist pattern, resulting in thinning of the photoresist pattern or a change in cross-sectional shape. There was a fear that it would be formed into a trapezoidal shape. It is known that a photoresist pattern having a trapezoidal cross-sectional shape has a significant turn regression during ion etching compared to a photoresist pattern having a rectangular cross-sectional shape.
For this reason, the shape of the upper magnetic body after etching is too small compared to the design value, making it difficult to realize the upper magnetic body in a predetermined shape.

In view of the above points, the present invention has been devised to form a thin film magnetic head manufacturing method in which seven turns of photoresist for forming the upper Saa body of a WaS magnetic head are formed into a predetermined shape with high precision, and the etching process of the upper Saa body can be easily performed. The purpose is to provide the following.

According to the present invention, in the manufacturing process of a thin-film-air head, a soft magnetic material such as permalloy is formed on a substrate on which a TwAIIaa body, a gap layer, a coil, and a step elimination layer have already been formed. Step 41: Coating 7 photoresist layers of , xi over the entire surface of the primary substrate so that the thickness is at least one-third of the height of the step O of the front gap.
．． In the process of applying gold & 4 layers on this 91 photoresist layer, a second photoresist layer is applied on the metal layer #1, and a predetermined upper part is A step of forming a 7-oto-resist pattern for body formation, step S of etching the metal thin film to form a metal pattern, and performing ion etching in an oxygen atmosphere using this metal pattern as a mask material to form the 7-oto-resist pattern of WX1. In the patterning process, after the etching of the 7 photoresist layer in #11 described above is completed @*, the atmosphere gas is replaced with oxygen or JAr gas, and then IA is performed, and the soft magnetic material forming the upper magnetic material is ion etched in the atmosphere. Provided is a method for manufacturing a thin i* air head, the method comprising the steps of:

The actual m-series of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. Fig. 2 shows the manufacturing process of the thin S magnetic head according to the present invention, and is a schematic cross-sectional view taken near the [pnt gap] of the upper and lower magnetic bodies in a direction perpendicular to the longitudinal direction of the upper and lower magnetic bodies. be.

That is, in FIG. 2(a), the lower V16al material 23, the insulating layer 24 which becomes the gap, and the lower mF! E
The entire fjJK upper magnetic body is N1c on the substrate 21 on which the step eliminating layer for the body 23, the coil and the step eliminating layer for the coil (the last three are not shown) are formed.
A soft magnetic material 25 having a predetermined thickness such as e is formed by sputtering or the like, and then, as shown in FIG. Then, a 107th photoresist layer 26 is formed. At this time, the first photoresist layer 26
The front of the field is at least one of the steps indicated by the middle arrow.
/34! Apply to a film thickness of 100 mL. Figure 3 shows the state of application of 7-otoresist at this time. Figure 3 shows upper and lower a
This is a longitudinal cross-sectional view of the l-type body, and when the first O photoresist layer 39 is applied as described above, the thickness T, K of the photoresist layer 39 on the upper part of the coil 36 is different from that at the gap part T, is due to photoresist accumulation.
The lower magnetic body 33 or coil 36 is larger than the
35 and 37 of organic substances that play a role in eliminating the significant difference in
This means that the height difference A caused by this will be significantly reduced.

Thereafter, a thin metal 1127 is formed by a vapor deposition method or the like (as shown in FIG. 2(c)). Next, a photoresist layer 28 of #g2 is applied, and a predetermined upper-am body formation 47 photoresist pattern is formed at the base of the current iron (see Figure 2).
d) )e After that, the unnecessary metal thin film 27 is removed by chemical etching to form a metal pattern (Figure 2 (e)).
Then, as shown in 2fi(r), using the metal pattern 27 as a mask, the aforementioned Al photoresist layer 26 is ion-etched in an atmosphere of 0.41I. In this case, the first photoresist layer 26 is Since -4 at the gap portion is larger than other portions, ion etching is performed until the photoresist layer 26 is completely removed.

Therefore, over-etching occurs in some areas, but the ion etching rate of the 7 photoresist in a 0°g atmosphere is one order of magnitude higher than the ion etching rate of the soft magnetic material 25 such as N1ce, which is the underlying layer of the photoresist layer 26 of Ill. is also large, so there is no practical problem.

After completing the ion etching of the 7th photoresist 26 of the leg 1 as described above, ion etching of the soft magnetic material 25 which will become the upper magnetic material is performed using 02 gas A and alml gas (Fig. 2 (g)). 9. During this etching, the patterned metal [11, that is, the metal pattern 27 is not etched away.9. 1 of the first photoresist layer 26
17. The part is also etched and its film thickness is small. It is completed when etching is completed. Here, the metal thin 11127 is Fi, #5 metals whose ion etching speed k in the element is sufficiently smaller than that of the photoresist are Ti,
Cr.

It is a crab tooth like A1.

By adopting the manufacturing method of the upper magnetic material as described above, it is possible to use the metal 111j27 as a mask and use the metal 111j27 as a mask without patterning the resist shield 26. Since patterning is performed by ion etching in an atmosphere, photoresist and soft WIi are used as described above.
-1 because the ion etching speed of the pillars is significantly different.
There is no occurrence of photoresist residue due to misalignment of the photoresist layer 26011, and there is almost no occurrence of photoresist pattern JIIJ), and the cross-sectional shape of the photoresist pattern can also be made into a rectangular shape. . As a result, it is possible to form the upper magnetic body into a predetermined shape according to the design. Extremely large advantages will be realized in the manufacturing process of magnetic heads.

In the manufacture of the 41IKIII narrow track thin film magnetic head, the upper thi1! The shape-column-body method of the gender body is extremely effective. ,.

In order to pattern I#1 all 1 metal thin @, 7 photoresist layers of sI2 28t--Hiro, as mentioned above.
Due to the coating of the photoresist layer 26 of the GX, the height difference in the height of the gear part (indicated by the arrow in Figure 3) is significantly reduced, so the problem of excessive m or insufficient light is solved. The second photoresist layer 28 is formed almost in the same pattern as the mask. Furthermore, even at the stage of patterning the metal 1111127 by chemical etching, the metal thin 11
The thickness of No. 27 is as thin as 1000 Aa degrees - the thinning caused by over etching can be ignored.

mmo simple eaIj1 mim is a schematic cross-sectional diagram showing the structure of a thin@magnetic head, iris 2
An enlarged view is a schematic process diagram showing the present invention, and FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the coating state of a photoresist layer.

In fig.

11.21.31--Substrate, i2,14,22°24.
32.34... Insulating layer, 13.18, 25° 38-Soft a column h 23*33- Lower magnetic body, 15° 17.35
．． 37--Organic layer, 26.28.39--Photoresist layer, 27-Metal thin! i% 16.36 Pass/Coil.

Figure 2 28 Figure 3 9

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] (1) In the manufacturing process of a thin 1llll[il&air head], a soft magnetic material such as permalloy, which becomes the upper magnetic material, is placed on a substrate on which a lower magnetic material, a gap layer, a coil, and a step elimination layer have already been formed. After forming the body, apply the first 7g resist layer to at least one-third of the height of the step in the gap part.
The entire surface of the board (JK coating step 41!
Step 1: Applying a metal thin film on the upper layer of this 7ml resist. Thereafter, a second photoresist layer is coated on the metal thin film to form a predetermined photoresist pattern for forming the upper S magnetic material by optical path phenomenon, and the metal pattern is etched by etching the metal thin film. Forming process 8! , a step of patterning the first seven photoresist layers by performing ion etching in an oxygen atmosphere using this metal pattern as a mask material; A method for manufacturing a thin 1iffllL head, characterized in that it includes a step of ion etching the soft magnetic material constituting the upper 5iaa body in a vacuum atmosphere. The metal thin film that forms the metal pattern that serves as a mask material during ion etching of the layer is Ti.
, C, or AI. ff. The method of manufacturing a thin film magnetic head according to claim 1.