JPS63220405A - Thin film magnetic head - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent magnetic leakage in the neighborhood of a gap from being generated and to obtain a thin film magnetic head with high performance in which working accuracy is heightened, by forming an inclined plane set along the tapered part of an upper magnetic layer on the upper plane of a metallic part of the thin film magnetic head provided with a nonmagnetic conductive metallic part between the tapered part of the upper magnetic layer and a lower magnetic layer. CONSTITUTION:In the thin film magnetic head constituted by laminating the lower magnetic layer 16, an insulating layer 18, a coil conductor layer 11, and the upper magnetic layer 10, and forming a magnetic gap 17 with the lower magnetic layer 16 by approaching one end of the upper magnetic layer 10 to the lower magnetic layer 16 via the tapered part 10a, the nonmagnetic conductive metallic part 12 is provided between the tapered part 10a of the upper magnetic layer 10 and the lower magnetic layer 16. Also, the inclined plane set along the tapered part 10a of the upper magnetic layer is formed on the conductive metallic part 12. In such a way, it is possible to prevent the leakage of a magnetic flux from the neighborhood of the magnetic gap 17 from being generated by the conductive metallic part 12 on the lower side of the tapered part, and also, to realize working with superior accuracy, therefore, by controlling the angle and the thickness of the inclined plane of the conductive metallic part 12, it is possible to improve the step coverage of the upper magnetic layer 10.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION "Field of Industrial Application" The present invention relates to a high-performance thin film magnetic head that prevents magnetic leakage near the gap and improves processing accuracy near the gap.

"Prior Art J" Recently, in response to demands for higher density recording and higher efficiency in magnetic recording media, various thin film magnetic heads with steep head magnetic field distribution and capable of high density recording have been proposed and put into practical use.

As a thin film magnetic head of this type, there has been a conventional
Thin film magnetic heads with various configurations are known, such as those described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 61-68715, etc., but all conventional thin film magnetic heads have the basic structure shown in FIG. Those with a structure are common.

A thin film magnetic head A having a conventional structure shown in FIG. 8 includes a lower magnetic layer 2 and a gap material 3 laminated on a substrate i, and a lower resin insulating layer 4 formed on the gap material 3 to have a trapezoidal cross section.
and an upper resin insulating layer 6, a coil conductor layer 5 formed between the lower resin insulating layer 4 and the upper resin insulating layer 6, and an upper magnetic layer laminated on the gap material 3 and the resin insulating layer 4.6. It is composed of a layer 7 and a protective layer 8. In addition,
A tapered portion 9 of the upper magnetic layer 7 is formed along the inclined portion of the lower resin insulating layer 4 and the upper resin insulating layer 6, and the upper magnetic layer 7 and the lower portion on the side of this tapered portion 9 (on the left side in FIG. 8) A magnetic gap G is formed by the magnetic layer 2 .

"Problems to be Solved by the Invention" In the thin-film magnetic head A having the configuration shown in FIG. Since the shape of the lower part of the portion 9 influences the shape of the magnetic gap G, it is desirable that the slope angle and slope of the sloped portion of the resin insulation layer 4.6 be processed with high precision. Even if .6 is processed by means such as etching, there is a problem that it cannot be processed with satisfactory accuracy because the processing accuracy of the resin itself is low.

In addition, conventional thin-film magnetic heads sometimes adopt a structure in which the magnetic gear part side of the lower magnetic layer 2 is formed thinly, and the other parts are formed thickly, in order to thicken the magnetic circuit. . However, if the lower magnetic layer 2 is made thinner on the magnetic gear portion side as described above, there is a problem in that the leakage of magnetic flux increases in the vicinity of the magnetic gap G.

The present invention was made in view of the above problem, and improves efficiency by preventing magnetic leakage near the gap.
The purpose of this invention is to improve the step coverage of the upper magnetic layer by increasing the processing accuracy near the gap, and to provide a thin film magnetic head with improved performance.

"Two steps to solve the problem" In order to solve the above problem, the present invention has a structure in which a lower magnetic layer, an insulating layer, a coil conductor layer, and an upper magnetic layer are laminated. In a thin film magnetic head in which one end is brought close to the lower magnetic layer through a tapered part to form a magnetic gap together with the lower magnetic layer, a non-magnetic, good conductor metal is used between the tapered part of the upper magnetic layer and the lower magnetic layer. It has a section. Note that this good conductor metal portion may be replaced by the outermost coil conductor layer. Further, it is preferable to form a slope along the tapered portion of the upper magnetic layer in the good conductor metal portion.

"Function" The non-magnetic, good conductor metal portion provided near the magnetic gap on the lower side of the tapered portion of the upper magnetic layer prevents leakage of magnetic flux from near the magnetic gap. In addition, since the good conductor metal part is made of metal and can be processed with extremely high precision compared to resin by using an ion beam, etc., it is necessary to control the angle of the slope of the good conductor metal part and the thickness of the good conductor metal part. By this, step coverage of the upper magnetic layer can be improved.

Embodiment FIG. 1 shows a planar shape of a thin film magnetic head H according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 shows a cross-sectional structure of the same magnetic head. The magnetic layer, 11 is a coil conductor layer, and 12 is a good conductor metal part.

In the thin film magnetic head H, the substrate shown in FIG. A lower magnetic layer 16 is formed on the upper surface of the lower magnetic layer 16.
A thin wall portion 16b is formed at one end side (the left end side in FIG. 2) with a step portion 16a interposed therebetween.

, -A 1.0 for the lower Fi# 169 stone. A gap layer 17 made of a SiOx film or the like is formed on the pupil-sieve, and a gap [7] above the thick portion of the lower magnetic layer 16 is formed.
On top is a coil conductor layer! 1 are provided in two stages in an insulated state surrounded by a resin insulating layer 18.

Further, a good conductor metal part 12 made of a nonmagnetic and highly conductive metal material such as copper is formed on the gap layer 17 above the step part 16a, and a good conductor metal part 12 is formed on the gap layer 17 above the thin part 16b of the lower magnetic layer 16. An upper magnetic layer 10 and a protective layer 19 are formed on the material 17, the good conductor metal part 12, and the resin insulating layer 18. Incidentally, in the upper magnetic field [1θ], the portion above the inclined portion of the resin insulating layer 18 and the portion above the good conductor metal portion 12 forms a tapered portion 10a.

The good conductor metal portion 12 has a rectangular planar shape as shown in FIG. 1, and is formed to cover the gap layer 17 on the step portion 16a as shown in FIG. 2, and is a good conductor metal portion! A slope 12a is formed on the left side of FIG. 2 of FIG.

In FIG. 1, 20 is a depth marker formed on the substrate on the side of the thin film magnetic head H and used as a processing dimension monitor during polishing of the depth of the thin film magnetic head H, and 21 is a depth marker on the medium facing surface. , and 22 indicates the zero depth line.

Next, the manufacturing process of the thin film magnetic head H having the above structure will be explained based on FIGS. 3 to 7.

To manufacture the thin film magnetic head H, first, as shown in FIG. 3, a lower magnetic layer I6 made of a magnetic material is formed on the upper surface of the substrate 15 made of a nonmagnetic material by plating or sputtering, and then etched. Then, a thin portion 16b is formed on the medium facing surface 21 side (left side in FIG. 3). Subsequently, a gap layer I7 made of AItOa, 5iOt, etc. is formed on the upper surface of the lower magnetic layer 16.

Next, as shown in FIG. 4, a coil conductor layer 11 made of a non-magnetic conductive material such as copper is formed on the gap layer 17 above the thick portion of the lower magnetic layer 16, and the lower magnetic layer 11 is formed on the gap layer 17 above the thick portion of the lower magnetic layer 16. A good conductor metal portion 12 made of a non-magnetic conductive material such as copper is formed on the gap layer 17 above the step portion 16a of No. 6.

Note that when forming the good conductor metal part 12, an appropriate mask is prepared and the lithography technique is applied to form the good conductor metal part 12. A depth marker 20 is also formed at the same time. When the good conductor metal part 12 and the depth marker 20 are formed using the same mask in this way, the good conductor metal part 12
Compared to the case where the depth marker 20 and the depth marker 20 are formed separately using two masks, the following advantages are produced.

That is, when two masks are used, it is necessary to position each of the two masks, so that positioning errors of each mask may overlap between the good conductor metal part 12 and the depth marker 20. However, by using the same mask, this redundant positioning error can be eliminated.

Next, as shown in Figure 4, the metal part is a good conductor! A slope 12a is formed on the left side (medium facing surface side) of 2 by a processing method using an ion beam or the like. Here, the good conductor metal part I2 is made of metal, and the etching accuracy thereof can be much higher than that of resin, so that the slope of the good conductor metal part 12 can be processed with extremely high precision. Therefore,
The height h of the good conductor metal part 12 with respect to the upper surface of the gap layer I7 (see FIG. 4) and the slope 12 of the good conductor metal part 12.
The inclination angle θ of a can be accurately formed to a desired value.

Next, a fifth resin insulating layer 18 made of polyimide resin or the like is applied.
The resin on the upper side of the good conductor metal part 12 is removed as shown in FIG. A conductor layer 11 is formed.

Next, the second stage coil conductor layer 11 is covered with a resin insulating layer 18 as shown in FIG.
is formed, and a protective layer 19 is formed later. Here, before forming the magnetic layer 10 above the good conductor metal part I2, the height h of the good conductor metal part 12 and the slope 12 are determined as described above.
If the inclination angle θ of a is controlled to a desired value, the upper magnetic core formed above the good conductor metal part 12! 0 step coverage can be improved. In this respect, in the conventional structure shown in FIG. 8, the vicinity of the magnetic gap G was composed of the resin insulating layer 4, which caused problems in terms of processing accuracy. This problem can be solved by employing a structure using a highly conductive metal part 12 that can be processed with high precision, and the magnetic gap G can be formed accurately.

When polishing the depth, the depth marker 20 is used as a guide, but in the thin-film magnetic head 1 having the above structure, the good conductor metal portion 12 can also be used as a guide, and depth processing is performed using the depth marker 20 as a guide. The accuracy can be further improved. Then, the depth marker 20 and the good conductor metal part 12
If they are formed using the same mask as described above, errors in their formation positions will be eliminated as described above, and the accuracy of depth polishing will be improved.

In the thin-film magnetic head H manufactured as described above, since the good conductor metal part 12 made of a highly conductive non-magnetic material is provided near the magnetic gap G, leakage of magnetic flux from the magnetic gap G is prevented. It can be prevented.

FIG. 9 shows a thin film ceramic head H' according to another embodiment of the present invention.

The thin film ceramic head H° of this embodiment has a structure in which a part of the outermost coil conductor layer 2 is provided to pass below the tapered part, and this outermost coil conductor layer 11 is a good conductor metal part, The other configurations are the same as those of the previous embodiment.

As described above, the same effect as in the above embodiment can also be obtained by using a good conductor metal part instead of the outermost coil conductor layer 11.

In the above embodiments, an example in which the present invention is applied to a thin film magnetic head H having a two-stage structure of the coil magnetic layer 11 has been described. Of course, the present invention may also be applied to.

"Effects of the Invention" As explained above, the present invention provides a good conductive metal part made of a good conductive metal material below the tapered part of the upper magnetic layer and near the magnetic gap. A highly efficient magnetic head that does not cause leakage of magnetic flux can be obtained. In addition, because the metal part with good conductivity, which can achieve higher processing accuracy than resin, is provided below the tapered part of the upper magnetic layer and near the gap, the conventional thin film, in which the area near the gap was formed from resin with low processing accuracy, is This has the effect of improving gap accuracy compared to magnetic heads.

Furthermore, since the surface of the good conductor metal part can be processed with high precision using an ion beam or the like, controlling the shape of the good conductor metal part has the effect of improving the step coverage of the upper magnetic layer formed above it. In addition, since the good conductive metal part is provided below the tapered part of the upper magnetic layer and near the gap, it is also possible to use the good conductive metal part as a monitor during depth polishing, thereby improving depth processing accuracy. There is an effect that can be done.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a plan view of a thin film magnetic head according to an embodiment of the present invention;
Figure 2 is a cross-sectional view of the main parts of the thin film magnetic head, Figures 3 to 7 show the manufacturing process of the thin film magnetic head, and Figure 3 shows the state in which the lower magnetic layer and gap layer have been formed. 4 is a sectional view showing a state in which a good conductor metal part and a coil conductor layer are formed, FIG. 5 is a sectional view showing a state in which an insulating layer is formed, and FIG. 6 is a sectional view showing a state in which a coil conductor layer is formed in the second stage. 7 is a sectional view showing a state in which an upper magnetic layer is formed, FIG. 8 is a sectional view showing an example of a conventional thin film magnetic head, and FIG. 9 is a sectional view showing another example of a conventional thin film magnetic head. It is a sectional view showing an example. H, H'... Thin film magnetic head, IO...
・Top magnetic layer, lOa...Tapered part, 11...
...Coil conductor layer, 12...Good conductor metal part, 12a...Slope, 15...Substrate, 16...
Lower magnetic layer, 17...Gap layer 7 18.
...Tree crossing layer, 20...Depth marker, 21...Medium facing surface, 22...
Zero depth line. Patent applicant: Alps Electric Co., Ltd. Figure 3 Figure 4 Figure 5 Figure 6

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) Comprising a lower magnetic layer, an insulating layer, a coil conductor layer, and an upper magnetic layer, one end of the upper magnetic layer is brought close to the lower magnetic layer through a tapered part to form a magnetic gap together with the lower magnetic layer. 1. A thin film magnetic head comprising: a non-magnetic, good conductor metal portion provided between the tapered portion of the upper magnetic layer and the lower magnetic layer. (2) The thin film magnetic head according to claim 1, wherein a slope along the tapered portion of the upper magnetic layer is formed on the upper surface of the good conductive metal portion.