JPS62214507A - Thin film magnetic head - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain a slider surface which generates no recess phenomenon and has a high flat accuracy, by forming a substrate for forming a slider and a protective layer of a magnetic pole layer by using the same material. CONSTITUTION:On a substrate 21 for forming a floating slider, the upper magnetic pole layer 7, the lower magnetic pole layer 3, etc., are provided by pinching a gap layer, an interlayer insulation layer and a coil, and they are covered with a protective film 8. The film 8 is formed by the same material as that of the substrate 21, and at the time of grinding a medium opposed surface 21, a recess phenomenon generated by a recessed part, etc. is eliminated from a boundary part, etc. of a heterogeneous material, and a slider whose flat accuracy is high is obtained.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Summary] The present invention relates to a thin film magnetic head used in a magnetic disk drive in which head components are provided on a substrate that constitutes a slider, and in which protection is provided for the substrate that constitutes the slider and the head components. By using the same material as the film, it eliminates the recess phenomenon that occurs between the slider surface and the magnetic pole tip surface on the medium facing surface formed by surface polishing, improving flatness accuracy and improving recording and reproducing characteristics. The aim is to improve the

[Industrial application field]

The present invention relates to a thin-film magnetic head used in a magnetic disk drive, and more particularly, the present invention relates to a thin-film magnetic head used in a magnetic disk device, and in particular, a head with good recording and reproducing characteristics that can be configured with a slider surface and a magnetic pole tip surface facing a magnetic disk medium on the same plane with good accuracy. It's about structure.

Thin-film magnetic heads have advantages such as miniaturization of magnetic poles and coil shapes through thin-film processing techniques and steeper recording magnetic field distribution, and various types of thin-film magnetic heads have already been proposed as suitable for high-density recording.

In recent years, with the increase in recording density and efficiency, the flying height of thin-film magnetic heads relative to magnetic disk media has tended to become lower. accuracy is extremely important, and high precision is required.

[Conventional technology]

The conventional S-film magnetic head is made of, for example, Al2O3.
A lower magnetic pole layer 3 made of Ni-Fe is formed on a substrate 1 made of Tic through an insulating layer 2 made of Al2O3 or the like.
03, a spiral double coil eyebrow 6 covered with an interlayer insulating layer 5, an upper magnetic pole layer 7 and A.
A protective film 8 made of l2O3 or the like and having a thickness of several tens of microns is sequentially laminated.

and a lower magnetic pole layer 3 facing opposite to each other with the gap layer 4 in between.
The tip of the upper magnetic pole layer 7 is exposed on a surface perpendicular to the surface of the substrate 1 on which the lower magnetic pole layer is provided, and this surface is flattened to serve as a medium facing surface 9 for the magnetic disk medium.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

By the way, in the structure of such a conventional thin film magnetic head, as shown in FIG.
, 3 surrounds the tips of the upper and lower magnetic pole layers 7.3 (including the insulating layer 2 and the protective layer 8).
The substrate 1, which occupies most of the other surfaces, consists of a surface made of Al2O3, etc., and a surface made of Al2O, .TiC, etc. of the slider. Therefore, the hardness differs due to the difference in these materials.

When forming a flat medium-facing surface 9 by a polishing finishing process on a surface in which surfaces having different materials and hardnesses coexist, the substrate 1 has a large difference in polishing speed as shown in FIG. There was a drawback that the surfaces of the insulating layer 2 and the protective film 8 were polished more than the surface, resulting in a recessed shape of, for example, about 0.05 μm, that is, a so-called "recessed J" occurred.

At this time, the tips of the upper and lower magnetic pole layers 7 and 3 surrounded by the insulating layer 2 and the protection IIW 8 are also finished in a concave shape.

Therefore, in recent years, in magnetic disk devices, the flying height of the magnetic head with respect to the magnetic disk medium 10 is 0.2 to 0.
．． While efforts are being made to achieve an extremely low flying height of 3 μm, the occurrence of such a recess effectively reduces the flying height of the magnetic head by several tens of percent.
This also has the disadvantage of greatly deteriorating the recording/reproducing characteristics.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In view of these conventional drawbacks, it is an object of the present invention to provide a novel thin film magnetic head having a slider surface with good flatness and no recess phenomenon.

[Means for solving problems]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention has a structure in which a protective film that protects the upper magnetic pole layer of a magnetic head and a substrate constituting a slider are made of the same material.

[For production]

In the thin film magnetic head of the present invention, since the substrate constituting the slider on which the head components are arranged is made of the same material as the protective film covering the upper magnetic pole layer, the surface of the protective film etc. and the slider The polishing rate when flattening the medium-facing surface made of the substrate surface forming the substrate by the polishing finishing process becomes uniform over the entire surface, and the recess phenomenon that has conventionally occurred is eliminated.

As a result, the flatness accuracy of the medium facing surface where the magnetic pole tip surface is exposed is improved.

〔Example〕

Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a sectional view of a main part of an embodiment of a thin film magnetic head according to the present invention.

In the figure, 21 is a substrate that becomes a slider, and the substrate 21 is made of Al2O, which is made of the same material as the protective film 8, and is formed to a thickness of several mm by, for example, sputtering.

Consisting of On the substrate 21 are a lower magnetic pole layer 3 made of Ni--Fe, a gap layer 4 made of Al2O3, etc., a spiral double coil layer 6 covered with an interlayer insulating layer 5, and an upper magnetic pole layer 7, as in the conventional case. A thick (approximately several tens of micrometers) protective film 8 made of Al2O3 and Al2O3 are laminated in this order.

Note that the substrate 21 and the protective film 8 are made of the same material and formed by the same manufacturing method, so that they have the same wear resistance such as hardness.

Furthermore, the tips of the lower and upper magnetic pole layers 3.7, which face each other with the gap layer 4 in between, are flat so that they are exposed on the same surface as the slider surface that is orthogonal to the surface of the substrate 21 on which the lower magnetic pole layer is disposed. It is flattened by a polishing process and serves as a medium facing surface 22 for the magnetic disk medium.

Therefore, as shown in FIG. 2, in the head configuration of this embodiment, since the substrate 21 constituting the slider and the protective film 8 covering the upper magnetic pole layer 7 are made of the same material, the structure is composed of these surfaces. There is no recess on the medium facing surface 22 (and the flatness accuracy is improved).

As a method for obtaining a thin-film magnetic head having such a structure, first, as shown in FIG. A substrate layer 32, which will become a slider and is made of Al2O3, is formed to a thickness of several mm by sputtering or the like.

Next, on the Al2O3 layer 32, Ni-F is applied as before.
A lower magnetic pole layer 3 made of e, a gap layer 4 made of Al2O3 etc., a spiral double coil layer 6 covered with an interlayer insulating layer 5, an upper magnetic pole layer 7, and a thick (about several tens of μm) protection made of Al2O3 etc. Layers 8 are laminated in sequence.

Thereafter, as shown in FIG. 4, the base material 31 on which the head structural elements are formed is removed by a polishing process. At this time, if the base material 31 is made of a metal material or the like, it may be removed using a selective etching process.

Subsequently, the area indicated by the dashed line B in the figure is cut through the cutting/polishing process, and polished to a flat finish.The media is then formed into a slider chip shape with no recesses and high flatness accuracy. A thin film magnetic head having the surface 22 can be easily obtained.

Furthermore, as another method for shaping such a thin film magnetic head, for example, as shown in FIG.
An intermediate insulating layer 41 made of the same material Al2O3 is formed to a thickness of several tens of micrometers by sputtering or the like, and a lower magnetic pole layer 3 made of Ni-Fe, A
A gap layer 4 made of l2O3 or the like, a spiral double coil layer 6 covered with an interlayer insulating layer 5, an upper magnetic pole layer 7, and a thick (about several tens of μm) protective layer 8 made of Al2O3 or the like are laminated in this order.

Next, as shown in FIG. 6, only the base material 31 on which the head structural elements are formed is once removed by a polishing process.
At this time, if the base material 31 is made of a metal material, etc., it may be removed by a selective etching process. A substrate layer 42 that will become a slider is formed to a thickness of several mm by sputtering or the like. In this embodiment, the intermediate insulating layer 41 is a part of the slider.

After that, the part shown by the dashed line B in the figure is cut through the cutting and polishing process, and polished to a flat finish. By forming it into a slider chip shape, there is no recess as in the above-mentioned formation example. , a thin film magnetic head having a medium facing surface 22 with high flatness accuracy can be easily obtained.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As is clear from the above description, in the thin film magnetic head according to the present invention, all surfaces other than the slider surface and the tip surfaces of the upper and lower pole layers constituting the medium facing surface are made of the same material with the same wear resistance. As a result, the occurrence of recesses is eliminated and the flat finishing accuracy of the medium facing surface is significantly improved.

Therefore, it is possible to easily obtain a high-performance thin film magnetic head with excellent recording and reproducing characteristics, and the present invention is extremely advantageous for use in this type of thin film magnetic head.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view of a main part showing an embodiment of a thin film magnetic head according to the present invention. FIG. 2 is a schematic cross-sectional view of a main part for explaining a medium facing surface of a thin film magnetic throat according to the present invention. , FIGS. 3 to 4 are cross-sectional views of essential parts for explaining step-by-step an embodiment of a method for forming a thin film magnetic head according to the present invention, and FIGS. 5 to 6 are cross-sectional views of a thin film magnetic head according to the present invention. 7 is a plan view for explaining a conventional thin film magnetic head, and FIG. 8 is a line AA' shown in FIG. 7. FIG. 9 is a cross-sectional view of the main part taken along the cutting line. FIG. 9 is a cross-sectional view of the main part for explaining the medium facing surface of a conventional thin film magnetic head. 1 to 6, 3 is a bottom pole layer, 4 is a gap layer, 5 is an interlayer insulating layer, and 6 is a bottom pole layer.
1 is a double coil layer, 7 is an upper magnetic pole layer, 8 is a protective film, 21 is a substrate, 22 is a medium facing surface, 31 is a base material, 32 and 42 are a substrate layer, and 41 is an intermediate insulating layer. Third evil

Claims (1)

[Claims] A pair of magnetic pole layers (
3, 7) are provided sandwiching the gap layer (4), interlayer insulating layer (5), and coil layer (6), and the upper surface is covered with a protective film (8).
), the above-mentioned substrate (
21) and a protective film (8) made of the same material.