JPS62229515A - Magnetic head slider - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide an excellent sliding characteristic to the titled slider and to prevent the slider from giving damages to a magnetic disk on collision by providing the magnetic head slider where at least part of an air bearing faces of the slider uses a ceramics subject to ion implantation onto its surface. CONSTITUTION:The air bearing face 2 of the slider 1 is arranged opposite to a magnetic circuit 4 comprising a 'Permalloy(R)', a coil and a resin insulation film. The ion implantation layer 3 is provided at a part of the bearing face 2 and for example, N2<+> is implanted to the layer 3 as ion source. Thus, the slider has the excellent sliding resistance and hardly gives damages onto the magnetic disk at collision.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a magnetic head slider used in a magnetic head device for reading and/or recording data from a magnetic disk.

[Conventional technology]

Magnetic disk devices are widely used as storage devices for computers. This magnetic disk device is equipped with one or more magnetic head sliders on each surface of the disk, and a magnetic circuit consisting of a magnetic core, a winding, and a magnetic gap is configured on the magnetic head slider. Recording is written to and read from the magnetic disk by the circuit.

This magnetic head slider is fixed by a leaf spring and an arm, and is supported by a movable suspension device to the magnetic disk surface. When the magnetic disk rotates, gas viscosity (generally air viscosity) causes α1 It is designed to float by about 0.3 μm. Therefore, since the magnetic head slider slides on the surface of the magnetic disk when starting and stopping the magnetic disk, the sliding characteristics of both become a problem. This start and stop operation is generally referred to as CS/S (Contact 5tart/
The stability of the magnetic disk and magnetic head slider with respect to this operation is known as 08/
This is called S performance. Furthermore, even during steady rotation of the magnetic disk, the magnetic disk and the magnetic head slider may come into contact, albeit accidentally. This is mainly because dust in the air or on the magnetic disk adheres to the magnetic head slider, disrupting its flying posture, and mechanical disturbances cause the arm supporting the magnetic head slider to vibrate. In this case, the magnetic head slider collides with a magnetic disk rotating at high speed (typically 3600 rpm) at high speed. Therefore, in order to increase the reliability of magnetic disk drives, materials for magnetic disks and magnetic head sliders are required to be less susceptible to damage from such collisions.

In recent years, #film heads that utilize magnetic circuits have begun to be used to increase magnetic recording density, and A40! / Ceramic materials such as T i C are used. However, such ceramic materials are more difficult to use than the above-mentioned 08
/S performance was poor, and the magnetic disk suffered great damage in the event of a collision.

In order to compensate for this drawback, JP-A-59-19272 proposes a method of providing an amorphous layer on the surface of Al40@/Tie ceramics. however,
Although this method is effective in improving OS/S performance, it is not necessarily effective in reducing damage caused by collisions as described above.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

That is, in the above-mentioned conventional technology, methods for providing an amorphous layer on a ceramic surface include (]) a method of mechanically processing the surface, (2) a method of oxidizing the surface, and (3) a method of oxidizing the surface.
A sputtering method has been proposed to provide a different amorphous phase. It was found that when these amorphous phases collide with a magnetic disk, they peel off locally, and the edges of these peeled off parts damage the magnetic disk during subsequent collisions. This problem occurs not only in the case of continuous media disks with a magnetic plating film or sputtered film on a metal plate, but also in the case of magnetic powder, filler (generally particle size 1
1! degree of mu 1.0. This also occurs in the case of coated media discs made of powder (where powder is used) and resin.

The reason why the amorphous layer easily peels off using the conventional method is that microcracks occur in the amorphous layer due to mechanical processing, and these become starting points for peeling off upon impact, and that oxidation and sputtering occur on the surface. When an amorphous phase is provided by a method, it is easy to peel off at the interface between the ceramic and the amorphous phase due to insufficient adhesion between the ceramic and the amorphous layer or due to differences in the coefficient of thermal expansion and Young's modulus between the two. It is estimated that the

Furthermore, if ceramics are used as they are as a magnetic head slider, not only will the CS/S performance be inferior as described above, but the ceramics will crack and partially peel off during a collision with a magnetic disk, and upon subsequent collisions, It has been found that this can damage magnetic disks. This is due to the fact that ceramics are brittle materials and that grain boundaries generally tend to become points of origin for fracture.

The present invention eliminates the above-mentioned drawbacks of the prior art and solves the problem of CS/
An object of the present invention is to provide a magnetic head slider that has excellent S performance and is less likely to cause damage to a magnetic disk in the event of a collision.

[Means for solving problems]

In order to achieve the above object, in the present invention, at least a portion of the air bearing surface of the slider that starts and stops in contact with the recording medium surface of a magnetic disk is made of ceramic having ions implanted into the surface. It is characterized by the use of

The ceramic used has a thermal conductivity of α1ca.
x 7cm, sea, t: or more is desirable, specifically SiC, At14, Mo5il, MgO,
BeO or the like can be used.

Further, nitrogen or oxygen can be used as the ion species implanted into these ceramics, and the effective dose is about I x 10' 7 cm'' or more.

Furthermore, the depth of the ion implantation layer can be controlled by the type of ceramic used and the accelerating voltage during implantation, and specifically, a depth of approximately [1L1 μm or more is sufficiently effective for the purpose of the present invention. Further, due to limitations on the accelerator, the depth is usually limited to several μm or less.

When ions are implanted into ceramics, the bonds between atoms in the ceramics are disrupted on an atomic level, and if ion implantation does not involve the formation of new precipitated phases, the hardness and brittleness of the ceramics decreases, and conversely, dust is generated. This increases the elasticity and makes it easier to plastically deform in response to mechanical stress. Therefore, by providing an ion-implanted phase on the air bearing surface of the magnetic head slider (the surface facing the medium surface of the magnetic disk), the problem of brittle fracture and peeling of the ceramics during collision can be avoided. It disappears. As a result, damage to the magnetic disk due to collisions is significantly reduced. In addition, the ion-implanted phase deforms appropriately during sliding, and has the effect of preventing loss gJt of the magnetic disk due to sliding. As a result, the reliability of the magnetic disk as a whole can be greatly improved.

Note that internal strain naturally exists within the ion-implanted phase, but this strain is localized on the atomic order, and this strain becomes the starting point for microcracks to occur during collision. There's no fear. However, the amount of implantation (dose f#)
If there is too much, internal strain becomes too large, resulting in the generation of microcracks, which is undesirable. In order to avoid this, it is desirable that the dose be less than 1X10"/cIR".

In addition, since the ion molecules in the ion implantation phase have a suitable surface distribution in the depth direction, the boundary between the ion implanted phase and the non-ion implanted phase is ambiguous, and therefore the bonding between the two is difficult. There is no fear that ions will separate at the interface between the implanted phase and the non-implanted phase.

As for ceramics used as magnetic head sliders, it is desirable that the thermal conductivity be as high as possible because the heat generated during sliding or collision is easily dissipated, and as a result, deterioration (particularly demagnetization) of the recording medium is less likely to occur. According to the study results of the present inventors, the thermal conductivity of ceramics is Q, j c
It has been found that the above-mentioned problem of demagnetization can be prevented by using a material with al/e1n1g130, C or higher. Materials that meet this requirement include SiC,
Al14, Mogi! , MgO, Bo.

and so on.

In addition, the ion species to be implanted must be difficult to form precipitates in the ceramic, and must be easily turned into gas due to problems with the implantation equipment. The ceramics mentioned above include 810, AtN, and MO8i! , MgO, Bo
When o is used, nitrogen or oxygen is most desirable as the ionic species. When these ionic species are used, not only can the toughness of ceramics be easily improved, but the characteristics of the implanted phase are stable against heat treatment up to about 500C.
Another advantage is that the mechanical properties of the ion implantation layer are stable over a long period of time when used as a magnetic disk device.

Furthermore, the method of providing an ion implantation layer according to the present invention can be used not only when the shape of the air bearing 1 m is flat but also when the shape is curved.

The ion implantation layer does not necessarily need to be provided on the entire surface of the air bearing surface, and even if it is provided on a part of the air bearing surface, it will have some effect on improving the sliding characteristics. This is because the ion implantation layer generally rises higher than the surrounding area, so the ion implantation layer preferentially comes into contact with the magnetic disk. However, for the purpose of obtaining sufficiently excellent sliding characteristics, it is desirable that the area of the ion implantation layer be equal to or larger than the area of the air bearing surface.

[Implementation row]

Hereinafter, the present invention will be explained in more detail with reference to examples.
The invention is not limited to these examples.

Example 1 A slider having the structure shown in FIG. 1 was manufactured using various ceramic materials shown in Table 1. Created. In FIG. 1, the reference numeral 1 represents a slider, 2 an air bearing surface, 3 an ion implantation layer, and 4 a magnetic circuit consisting of permalloy, a coil, and a resin insulating film. Place it opposite.

Note that ion implantation was performed on the slider after the magnetic circuit was formed.

When this slider is combined with a 14-inch coated disc (maximum surface roughness α2μm), it achieves C8/8 performance and a flying height of cL15μm (normal usage conditions are α25μm).
(equivalent to approximately 10 times accelerated testing) as 36
Table 1 shows the continuous life when rotating at 00 rpm. Here, both the aS/S life and the continuous life are expressed as the number of CS/S operations or the number of revolutions until the disk deteriorates and the output appearing in the magnetic circuit of the magnetic head decreases by 10%.

From Table 1, it can be seen that the slider of the present invention has excellent characteristics. It can be seen that demagnetization is particularly small when ceramics with high thermal conductivity are used.

Also, while rotating the disk at 5600 rpm,
IHz vibration was applied to the magnetic head to force the magnetic head to collide with the disk for 60 minutes. As a result, in the slider of the present invention, there was no major damage to the air bearing surface.
In particular, no cracks in the ceramic were observed. On the other hand, when the ion implantation layer was not provided, cracks appeared in the ceramic at grain boundary units, causing particles to peel off in places.

Furthermore, the A110z/Tie ceramic surface has a thickness of about α1 μm! When sliders sputtered with o3 or soda lime glass were tested in the same manner, delamination occurred at the interface between the ceramic and the sputtered layer. As a result, the disk surface was also severely damaged.

Example 2 A mixed sintered body consisting of MgO and AtN (1=1) was selected as the ceramic, N and 10 were selected as the implanted ion species, and the ion accelerating voltage was changed to create a slider with varying implantation layer depth. did. Incidentally, the implantation amount was kept constant at IX1017/Bi2. ion implantation layer depth (μm) and the above-mentioned continuous life (
Figure 2 shows the relationship between the two times as a graph.

From FIG. 2, it can be seen that this method is particularly effective when the implanted layer depth is 1l11 μm or more.

Example 3 As shown in FIG. 5, Sin! Using ceramics,
A slider with an air bearing surface having a curved (elliptic) shape was manufactured. Next, N2 ions were implanted into this air bearing surface to form an ion implantation layer with a depth of about 0.2 μm. This slider has particularly excellent sliding resistance, and has a continuous life of 1X compared to the coated disc described in Example 1.
107 times, which is extremely large.

In addition, in place of the coating type disk, C
The S/S life and continuous life at spacing 11 μm are 5X10' times and 3X107 times, respectively.
Demonstrates extremely high reliability as a slider.

Example 4 A slider was manufactured in the same manner as in Example 1, and after ion implantation was performed on the air bearing surface, as shown in FIG.
One end of the air bearing surface is polished diagonally to form the tapered part 21.
was formed. The formation of this tapered portion stabilizes the flying characteristics of the slider.

Although the ion implantation layer 3 was shaved off at this tapered portion, the slider shown in FIG. 4 exhibited the same OB/S life and continuous life as the slider shown in FIG. 1.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, the slider of the present invention has excellent sliding resistance and has a remarkable effect that the continuous life is 10 to 100 times longer than that of a conventional slider without an ion-implanted layer.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

1, 5, and 4 are schematic diagrams showing structural examples of the magnetic head slider of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a graph showing the characteristics of the magnetic head slider obtained in the embodiment of the present invention.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A floating magnetic head slider that starts and stops in contact with the recording medium, wherein the slider is made of ceramics and starts and stops in contact with the surface of the recording medium.
A magnetic head slider characterized in that at least a portion of an air bearing surface of the slider that performs a stopping operation is made of an ion-implanted layer. 2. The thermal conductivity of the ceramic is 0.1 Cal/cm
The magnetic head slider according to claim 1, wherein the magnetic head slider has a temperature of at least . 3. The ceramic is SiC, AlN, MoSi_2
The magnetic head slider according to claim 2, wherein the magnetic head slider is mainly composed of , MgO, or BeO. 4. The magnetic head slider according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the ion species implanted into the ion implantation layer are mainly nitrogen or oxygen.