JP2000285422A - Head gimbals assembly and its manufacture - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a structure which can prevent an electrostatic breakdown easy to generate in accordance with the miniaturization of an MR head between a reproduction element and a magnetic shield film even in an assembly process for a head gimbals assembly as well as a preceding wafer process. SOLUTION: A used head gimbals assembly 8 has a slider 11 having a magnetoresistive element, and a load beam 10 for supporting the slider 11. The slider 11 has four or more terminals, and the load beam 10 has a printed wiring 7. One side of the printed wiring 7 is connected to the terminals and the other end of the printed wiring 7 has four or more terminals.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a head gimbal assembly equipped with a magnetoresistive head, and more particularly to a head gimbal assembly provided with a structure for preventing a magnetoresistive element from being damaged by static electricity.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art The recording density of hard disk drives (hereinafter referred to as HDDs) is increasing year by year, and the magnetic heads used are rapidly being replaced by inductive heads by recording / reproducing separation type heads. The recording / reproducing separation type head has a reproducing head and an inductive recording head. This readhead has
A magnetoresistance effect element (MR element) having a magnetoresistance effect (MR effect) is used. Because of this feature, the read / write separation type head is called a magnetoresistive effect type magnetic head. Hereinafter, the magnetoresistive head will be referred to as an MR head. This MR head is formed on a slider by a patterning technique using photolithography and a film forming technique. The slider is attached to the suspension, and the wiring of the suspension and the electrode pad of the slider are electrically connected to form a head gimbal assembly. Hereinafter, the head gimbal assembly will be referred to as HGA (Head Gimbal Assembly).
mbly).

The conventional HGA has, for example, the following configuration. The first example has a slider having an MR element and a recording element, and a suspension which is a metal arm supporting the slider. A printed wiring provided on the suspension and an electrode pad of the slider are bonded by bonding wiring. A connection configuration is used. The second example has a configuration in which a gimbal is provided between the slider and the suspension in the first example. This gimbal functions as a metal leaf spring according to the inclination of the slider and the like. In some cases, the gimbal is omitted and a leaf spring structure is built in the suspension itself.

An outline of the manufacturing process from the MR head to the HGA will be described. MR heads are formed in a number of thousands or more by laminating thin films on a substrate called a wafer. The wafer is cut into substrates each having one MR head. The slider is formed by processing the air bearing surface of the substrate so as to be flush with the medium facing surface of the MR head. Further, the slider is fixed to the suspension and connects the electrode pad and the wiring to form an HGA. Further, a stack in which a plurality of HGAs are collectively held can be configured. This stack is provided in a hard disk drive. 2. Description of the Related Art In a hard disk drive, a slider flies above a rotating magnetic disk and is used for recording and reproducing magnetic information with a magnetoresistive magnetic head. Therefore, the manufacturing process of the MR head can be roughly classified into a wafer process for laminating thin films and a slider process for cutting the wafer to form a floating surface.

In the field of MR heads, the following techniques are known as antistatic techniques. JP-A-9-91623
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. H11-139,086 discloses a magnetoresistive head having a short circuit for short-circuiting two electrodes without the intervention of an MR element. The drawings of this publication describe a structure in which a deformed convex portion of a magnetic shield film is directly bonded to an electrode film. JP-A-8-167123 discloses a method of manufacturing a magnetic head in which a plurality of head elements are electrically connected to electrodes and upper and lower shields, formed on a substrate, and the formed elements are separated one by one. Have been. JP-A-10-
Japanese Patent No. 247307 discloses a magnetic head having a resistance element for electrically connecting a lead and a magnetic shield film. The resistance value of this resistance element is set to a high value of 100 k to several MΩ.

[0006]

The MR head uses a thin film made of a magnetic material or a metal material. These thin films are easily charged in the manufacturing process. As the thickness of the thin film becomes thinner as the MR head becomes smaller, electrostatic breakdown is more likely to occur. In particular, electrostatic breakdown occurs between the reproducing element and the magnetic shield film, and damages the MR head. Electrostatic breakdown refers to a phenomenon in which when a potential between a charged thin film and another thin film increases, an excessive current flows through a thin insulating film disposed between the thin films or the thin film itself, and the thin film is destroyed. Some conventional MR heads are short-circuited in order to prevent electrostatic breakdown between the read element and the magnetic shield film. However, these techniques have not been able to effectively prevent electrostatic breakdown from a wafer process for forming a component MR head to an HGA assembling process and a process of attaching the HGA to an HDD.

In the prior arts of Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Nos. 9-91623 and 8-167123, the electrode of the reproducing element and the magnetic shield film are short-circuited. However, the short circuit must be cut by machining, and the timing of cutting is limited to the step of cutting the wafer. Further, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 10-247307 does not mechanically cut a short circuit, but leaves a resistive element having a high resistance value. The remaining resistance element becomes a parallel circuit that causes noise to the reproduction element. Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide an HGA without relying on a wafer or slider cutting process for opening a short circuit.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an MR head which prevents electrostatic breakdown in the assembling process.

[0008]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION A head gimbal assembly according to the present invention has a slider provided with a magnetoresistive element and a load beam for supporting the slider, and the slider has four or more terminals. The load beam includes a printed wiring, one side of the printed wiring is connected to the terminal, and the other end of the printed wiring includes four or more terminals. Here, the load beam is a metallic leaf spring, and is also called a suspension. The terminals provided on the slider are also called electrode pads. For example, it is desirable that the head gimbal assembly be of a type in which a slider has six or more terminals and the other end of the printed wiring has six or more terminals. However, it is possible to use at least four sliders and four printed wirings by using the terminals at the same time.

In a head gimbal assembly (HGA) according to the present invention, a reproducing element having a magnetoresistive effect has an MR head sandwiched between two magnetic shield films via an insulating film, and a detection current is supplied to the reproducing element. At least one of the two electrode films for guiding is in electrical contact with the magnetic shield film via a fuse that blows. In the HGA, after the HGA assembling process or the HDD manufacturing process, the fuse is blown.
Further, due to the blowing of the fuse, the MR head has a residual trace of the blown fuse.

[0010] Another HGA of the present invention has at least four or more electrode pads in order to externally supply current to the recording element and the reproducing element, and a current or voltage is applied between at least two of the electrode pads. The head gimbal assembly is characterized in that the fuse connected to the two electrode pads is blown by adding. This head assembly is HGA or H
After the fabrication of the DD, the fuse is blown. Also,
Due to the blowing of the fuse, the MR head has a residual mark of blowing the fuse.

In the method of manufacturing an HGA according to the present invention, after assembling the HGA, the fuse in the MR head is energized through a terminal provided on the HGA to blow the fuse. That is, from the time the MR element is formed in the wafer process until the HGA is assembled, preserving the fuse can prevent the electrostatic damage of the MR element. Further, the fuse can be blown after the HGA is incorporated into the HDD or after the HGA is assembled into a stack.

Another method of manufacturing an HGA according to the present invention has a structure in which a reproducing element having a magnetoresistance effect is sandwiched between two magnetic shield films via an insulating film, and guides a detection current to the reproducing element. At least one of the two electrode films is electrically connected to the magnetic shield film via a blown fuse.
The fuse is blown using a current pulse or a voltage pulse after the HGA assembling process is completed. Further, it is preferable that a short circuit or a withstand voltage between the reproducing element and the magnetic shield film is inspected thereafter.

The method of manufacturing an HGA according to the present invention has at least four or more terminals for applying a current to the recording element and the reproducing element from the outside, and applies a current or a voltage between at least two of the terminals. As a result, the fuse electrically connected to the two terminals is blown.
In the manufacturing method A, after the HGA assembling process is completed, the fuse is blown using a current pulse or a voltage pulse, and thereafter, a short circuit or a withstand voltage between the reproducing element and the magnetic shield film is inspected. Characteristic HG
A is a manufacturing method.

According to another method of manufacturing an HGA of the present invention, at least four or more terminals are provided for externally supplying current to a recording element and a reproducing element, and a current or voltage is applied between at least two of the terminals. , The fuse connected to the two terminals can be blown, and the fuse has a residual mark that has been blown. A method of manufacturing an HGA, comprising: after completion, blowing the fuse using a current pulse or a voltage pulse, and then inspecting a short circuit or a dielectric strength between the reproducing element and the magnetic shield film.

In another HGA of the present invention, a terminal for energizing a recording element and a terminal for energizing a reproducing element are M
It has N terminals used for energizing the fuse or inspecting the fuse, M is 4 or more, and N is 2 or more. When the fuse is energized or inspected, a current for fusing flows between one of the N terminals and one of the M terminals.

For example, in an HGA provided with a spin valve type MR head, M ≧ 4 and N ≧ 2, and the tunnel junction type M
The HGA provided with the R head has M ≧ 4 and N ≧ 2. The value of M includes measurement of the polishing amount of the slider, measurement of the distortion of the slider or MR element, and measurement of the slider or MR element.
A measuring element for measuring the temperature of the element, etc.
It may include a head, a slider, and a terminal related to a measuring element attached to the HGA.

The following combinations can be selected as the relationship between M and N. The first type is a type in which M and N do not overlap and the number of terminals of the HGA becomes (M + N). The second type is a type in which N is included in M and the number of terminals of the HGA becomes M. In this type, a terminal for energizing the thin-film coil is electrically connected to one of the fuses, so that one terminal has two functions of blowing the fuse and energizing the thin-film coil. This gives N
Is included in M. The third type is a type in which a part of N is included in M, and the number of terminals of the HGA is an intermediate number between the first type and the second type. This corresponds to a case where one terminal for energizing the fuse is used only for its function, and the other terminal for energizing the fuse is also used as a terminal for energizing the thin-film coil.

The first type has a large number of HGA terminals. However, since one terminal is used for one purpose, there is no possibility that the terminal may be mistaken. For example, when a fuse is mounted on a conventional 4-terminal slider, HG
A and the slider have six terminals. The above-mentioned second type is effective when the number of terminals can be reduced and the area of the place where the terminals are provided is limited. For example, the conventional 4
Regarding the HGA of the terminal, the terminal of the HGA can be kept at four terminals despite the provision of the fuse in the MR element. The third type is a conventional four-terminal HG.
If a fuse is provided in the MR element in A, a five-terminal HGA can be formed according to the terminal arrangement area and the convenience of electric circuit design.

In the above-mentioned present invention, it is preferable that the fuse is blown after forming a stack in which a plurality of head gimbal assemblies are combined. Further, the shape of the fuse incorporated in the HGA MR head of the present invention is not limited to a straight line, but may be a combination of a plurality of straight lines, a curved line,
A combination of a curve and a straight line, an L-shape or the like may be used.

In the present invention, the magnetic shield film is grounded from a part of the electrodes arranged on both sides of the reproducing element via the conductive film. Grounding refers to electrical conduction. Since this conductive film needs to be cut later, in the present invention, the shape and resistance of the conductive film are designed so that the conductive film functions as a fuse. However, it is necessary that the withstand voltage of the conductive film be sufficiently smaller than the withstand voltage of the reproducing element in order to avoid damaging the reproducing element when the fuse is cut. Therefore, it is desirable that the resistance of the conductive film be higher than the resistance of the reproducing element.

The electrical connection of the read element (MR element) to the magnetic shield film prevents a potential difference from occurring between the read element and the magnetic shield film, and is caused by dielectric breakdown between the read element and the magnetic shield film. This controls the phenomenon that current flows through the reproducing element. This technique is a particularly effective means for preventing electrostatic damage of the reproducing element, and the charging is performed between the wafer process and the HGA assembling process or between the wafer process and the process of assembling the HGA to a stack or HDD. The effect can be eliminated.

However, in the completed HGA, if there is continuity between the reproducing element and the magnetic shield film, a weak current flows between the element and the magnetic shield film even when the HDD is operated, so that the reproduced signal to the HDD is not affected. It causes noise.
Therefore, the continuity between the read element and the magnetic shield film is grounded (connected) during the manufacturing process, and the HGA or H
After completion of the DD, it is necessary to be insulated. In addition, in a state where the reproducing element and the magnetic shield film are insulated from each other in a finished product, it is necessary to guarantee a desired withstand voltage in order to prevent an electrostatic breakdown accident occurring when handling the device.
Therefore, it is necessary to insulate the reproducing element from the magnetic shield film at the final stage of the manufacturing process and measure the withstand voltage. The grounding of the reproducing element mentioned here is a known technique, but the technique of assembling the HGA and grounding or insulating the finished product is a new technique that has never been seen before.

As in the case of a general electric fuse, the principle of cutting a fuse is to blow a conductive path by utilizing heat generated by a current flowing through the fuse. However, the difference from the general case is that the current mainly used for cutting is not a steady current but a current pulse. If a steady current is used, a voltage is applied between the reproducing element and the magnetic shield film after the fuse is cut, which may cause dielectric breakdown between the reproducing element and the magnetic shield film. This results in destroying the read element, contrary to the purpose of the fuse of the present invention. On the other hand, when a current pulse is used, the fuse is blown under an appropriate pulse width condition, and thereafter, no voltage is applied between the reproducing element and the magnetic shield film, and the desired insulation can be maintained. It becomes possible.

[0024]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, an HGA according to the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIGS. 1 to 5 and FIGS. 8 and 9 describe the detailed structure of the HGA and its main part. Subsequently, a fuse blowing method in the HGA and parameters related to the fuse blowing will be described.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view schematically illustrating one embodiment of the HGA of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing the relationship between the wafer and the slider. FIG. 3 shows the HGA of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a plan view of an MR element provided in FIG. FIG. 5 is a perspective view of a main part of the MR head provided on the slider of the HGA. FIG. 4 is a plan view of FIG. 5 viewed from the direction of arrow x. 6 and 7 show the results of a fuse blowing experiment. 8 and 9 are perspective views of the MR element, and a description will be given of a change in the number of terminals of the MR element itself.

First, the configuration of the HGA will be described with reference to FIG. The HGA includes a load beam 10 made of a thin stainless steel plate, and a slider 11 bonded to a stage 18 of the load beam 10 via an ultraviolet curing resin. The load beam 10 has a mount 17 as a holding member for coupling to a stack or an HDD, a stage 18 as a portion surrounded by cuts provided in the load beam, and six copper wires of a plating film covered with an insulating layer. Printed wiring 7 and six internal terminals 14 provided on the slider side of the printed wiring 7
And a housing 19 provided with six external terminals 1 to 6 for printed wiring. Each of the internal terminal and the external terminal was electrically connected to the printed wiring, and was insulated from the stainless load beam 10 via an insulating layer. The slider 11 is mainly composed of a conductive ceramic substrate. The slider 11 has an air bearing surface 15 facing the magnetic recording medium, an MR head 16 covered with an alumina protective film, and an end of a lead wire electrically connected to the MR head 16. And an electrode pad 12.

The electrode pad 12 was exposed from the alumina protective film. Each of the electrode pads of the slider and the internal terminals of the load beam were electrically connected via a bonding wire 13. Out of the six external terminals, the external terminal 1 and the external terminal 2 are terminals for supplying a current to the MR element,
Used for playback operation. The external terminals 3 and 4 are terminals for supplying a current to the thin film coil of the recording head, and are used for a recording operation. The remaining external terminals 5 and 6 are terminals for supplying current to the fuse in the MR head, and are not used for reproducing or recording operations.

In the HGA of the above embodiment, the configuration may be changed as follows. For example, the connection between the internal terminal and the electrode pad can use ball bonding or tab bonding instead of the bonding wire. For the arrangement of the external terminals, provide a flange on the side of the load beam,
It is possible to select a type in which an external terminal on the flange is provided, or a type in which the printed wiring is formed of a flexible cable and an external terminal is provided at the end of the flexible cable protruding outside the mount beam 17 on the side opposite to the load beam. .

FIG. 2 shows the structure of the HGA according to the present invention.
3 shows a slider having more than one electrode pad. In the figure, the disk on the left is a wafer 30 on which a number of MR heads are formed. The slider 11 cut out from the wafer 30 has an MR element 16 and six electrode pads connected to the MR element. The electrode pads 14 and 14b are used to supply a recording current to the thin-film coil that excites the magnetic pole. The electrode pads 14c and 14d are used to supply a reproduction current to the MR element via the electrode film. The electrode pads 14e and 14f are provided for supplying a current pulse or a voltage pulse to a fuse provided between the electrode film and the magnetic shield film.

Next, FIG. 3 schematically shows an MR element and a fuse mounted on the slider as shown in FIG. This MR
The elements are provided in an MR head as shown in FIGS. In this reproducing element portion, an electrode film 26a and an electrode film 26b are provided at both ends of the MR element 25, respectively. Terminals 20a and 20b for current supply are provided at the end of the electrode film which is not joined to the MR element, and electrically connected to the external terminals 1 and 2 of FIG. 1 via a conductive lead film or the like. The electrode films 26a and 26b were connected to terminals 29a and 29b via fuses 25a and 25b, respectively.
The terminals 29a and 29b were formed of a part of the magnetic shield film, and were electrically connected to the external terminals 5 and 6 of FIG. 1 via a conductive lead film or the like.

The fuse was provided at the same time as forming the MR element. In this embodiment, in order to obtain a patterned (formed) thin film constituting an MR head, formation (deposition) of a thin film by sputtering or CVD, formation of a resist film and patterning of the thin film by photolithography technology, A series of steps such as removal of unnecessary portions by an etching technique was used. When forming the MR element, a fuse was simultaneously formed by patterning. Therefore, the film configuration of the fuse became similar to that of the MR element. The width d of the fuse was smaller than the width d0 in the depth direction of the MR element. The so-called track width Tw is the width of the MR element in a direction perpendicular to do. M provided with this reproducing element
FIG. 5 shows the entire configuration of the R head.

As the MR element 25 shown in FIG. 3, a spin valve element was used. The spin valve element includes a ferromagnetic film (free layer) in which a permalloy film and a cobalt iron film are laminated, a nonmagnetic metal film of copper, a ferromagnetic film of cobalt iron (fixed layer),
A multilayer film was formed by stacking a tMn antiferromagnetic film.
Each of the two ends of the spin valve element 25 was provided with an inclined surface, and provided with a permanent magnet film 41 and an electrode film 26 for applying a magnetic bias.

FIGS. 4 and 5 show a schematic structure of an MR head provided on an HGA slider. FIG.
This corresponds to a partial cross-sectional view of the R head as viewed from the medium facing surface. The medium facing surface corresponds to a surface perpendicular to the arrow x in the figure. Hereinafter, the structure will be described along the manufacturing steps. First, on a non-magnetic substrate 45 made of alumina / titanium carbide or the like, an alumina insulating film 46, a lower shield 44, an insulating film, an MR element 25, an insulating film, a mid shield 43 having a function as a lower magnetic pole, It has a recording gap and an upper magnetic pole 47. Lower shield 44, MR element 25,
The insulating film that insulates between the respective mid shields 43 is made of the same material as the protective film 48 and is integrated. A recording gap made of an insulating film is provided between the mid shield 43 and the upper magnetic pole 47, and functions as a magnetic gap of the inductive recording head. Further, a helical thin-film coil 49 is provided between the mid shield and the upper magnetic pole via an insulating film.
Is arranged. Further, the mid shield 43 and the lower shield 44 are used as magnetic shield films, and a reproducing gap made of an insulating film surrounding the MR element 25 is provided between the two, and also functions as a magnetic gap of the reproducing head.

After fabricating an HGA (head gimbal assembly) having the above-described detailed structure, a fuse blowing device was connected to an external terminal to blow a fuse provided in the MR element. Hereinafter, a procedure for blowing the fuse in the HGA of FIG. 1 will be described. When the fuse was blown, different combinations of the external terminals of the HGA could be selected. Two types of fuse blowing methods will be described with reference to FIGS. First, in the first method, a current pulse was applied between the external terminal 5 and the external terminal 6 in FIG. 1 to blow out two fuses at a time. That is, in FIG. 3, a current pulse is supplied between the terminal 29b and the terminal 29a to collectively use the fuses 25a and 25b.
Corresponds to fusing. Although not described, current is conducted between the terminals 29a and 29b, the terminals 20a and 20b, and the electrode pads of the slider via a conductive member (lead film) for guiding current.

The first method utilizes a circuit passing through an MR element, and the working efficiency can be improved by measuring the electric resistance value of the same circuit after a current pulse for fusing flows. . That is, a fusing device having a resistance measuring function was used. After applying a current pulse to the circuit, the measured resistance value of the circuit became pseudo-infinity, and the measuring apparatus determined that the circuit was open. Since this circuit passes through the MR element 5, two fuses 25
a and 25b can be cut at the same time. However, it is essential that the fuse be cut with a current pulse or a voltage pulse that does not damage the MR element. The current pulse applied here will be described later.

In the second method, the external terminal 1 shown in FIG.
A current pulse is applied between the external terminal 5 and the external terminal 5 to blow one fuse 25a, and then a current pulse is applied between the external terminal 2 and the external terminal 6 to blow the other fuse 25b. That is, in FIG. 3, a current pulse is applied between the terminal 29a and the electrode film 26a to blow one of the fuses 25a, and then a current pulse is applied between the terminal 29b and the electrode film 26b to apply the other to the other. This corresponds to blowing the fuse 25b. According to this method, a current pulse or a voltage pulse is applied to each fuse, so that no current flows through the MR element and the safety is high. However, the first
The number of steps is doubled as compared with the method of (1).

Next, the fuse parameters used in the above embodiment will be described with reference to the graph of FIG. d = 1μ
m width fuse pattern element (resistance 13 to 15Ω / μ)
m), a current pulse having a time width of 5 μs was applied, and the voltage at which the fuse pattern element was blown was examined. The fuse pattern element refers to a fuse formed of the same multilayer film as the MR element. In FIG. 6, the vertical axis represents the fuse resistance [Ω] and the horizontal axis represents the applied voltage [V]. The fuse pattern elements according to the samples 1 to 4 were blown at an applied voltage of 8 to 12 V. The peak current value when the pulse width was 5 μs and the voltage was 10 V was about 17 mA, and consumed 0.85 μWs of energy. In the wafer process in the course of manufacturing the reproducing element, the width of the reproducing element is wider than the final dimension of the element width in order to control the reproducing element width in the slider process for processing the slider shape later. The width in the wafer process is about 4 to 5 μm, which is 4 to 5 times the element width of the above fuse pattern, and a peak current of about 70 mA is necessary to secure the same current density as in the above experiment. 3.4 μWs was consumed as energy required for fusing. Therefore, it was found that when a current pulse was applied at an applied voltage of about 10 V at the end of the wafer process, the fuse was cut, but the read element was not affected.

Further, regarding the cutting of the fuse by the current pulse, a cutting experiment was performed using the pulse width and the peak current as parameters. FIG. 7 shows the experimental results. The vertical axis of the figure shows the peak current [A] which is the maximum value of the current pulse, and the horizontal axis shows the pulse width [sec] which is the half width of the current pulse. The scales on the vertical axis and the horizontal axis are both expressed in exponents, for example, -7 represents 10 ^-7 . FIG. 2 shows the case where the fuse pattern width is 1 μm and 4 μm. As the pulse width decreased, the magnitude of the peak current required for fusing increased.

When the pattern width was compared, the peak current at 4 μm was four times the peak current at 1 μm, indicating that the required peak current increased in proportion to the pattern width. This relationship is kept constant when the pulse width is 5 ns or more, and the range in which the fuse operates and the threshold value of the peak current at which the cutting pulse does not affect the reproducing element can be set in the shaded area in FIG.

In the MR element mounted on the HGA of the present invention, the following reproducing element can be used in place of the spin valve element of the above embodiment. A dual spin valve element in which a part of the four-layer film is formed as a multilayer film made of a metal material or a magnetic material, an antiferromagnetic film or two spin valve elements sharing a free layer,
A tunnel junction type MR element based on a configuration in which an insulating film is sandwiched between two soft magnetic films, a GMR element in which a nonmagnetic film and a magnetic film are alternately stacked, or the like can be used. These MR elements need to be miniaturized and thinned in order to correspond to a recording medium having a recording density of about 1 Gb / in ² or more, and the track width Tw is specified to be several μm or less. Therefore, when an HGA was manufactured by applying the above fuse to the MR element, electrostatic breakdown could be more effectively prevented, and the yield of the HGA was improved.

FIG. 8 illustrates the number of terminals of the MR element provided in the HGA of the present invention. FIG. 8 shows a ferromagnetic film (free film) 61, a non-magnetic metal film 62, and a ferromagnetic film (fixed film).
63 is a spin valve element in which an antiferromagnetic film 64 is sequentially stacked. The arrow shown in the film indicates the direction of magnetization. The spin valve element has two terminals 65 and 66 for supplying current. If an HGA is formed by providing a fuse on this, four to six external terminals of the HGA can be used. However, instead of eliminating the antiferromagnetic film 64 from the configuration shown in FIG. 8, a terminal for supplying a current to the ferromagnetic film 61 may also function as a spin valve element. This is because the ferromagnetic film 63 is magnetically biased by the magnetic field of the current flowing through the ferromagnetic film 61, and the magnetization is fixed. With such a modification, the number of terminals of the spin valve element becomes four. Therefore, when the HGA is formed by providing a fuse to the spin valve element modified from the type shown in FIG. 8, the number of external terminals of the HGA may be six to eight. What has been described here is that the number of external terminals of the HGA can be changed depending on the configuration of the MR element in addition to using the fuse terminal as another terminal.

Similarly, when there is a variation in the terminal configuration itself of the MR element itself, not limited to the change of the external terminals and their wirings, the HGA of the present invention can be broadly regarded as having four or more external terminals. be able to. FIG. 9 illustrates the number of terminals of another MR element provided in the HGA of the present invention. FIG. 9 shows a tunnel junction type MR element in which a ferromagnetic film 71, an oxide film 72, and a ferromagnetic film 73 are stacked. This MR element has a structure in which terminals 77 and 78 are connected to the ferromagnetic film 71 so as to make the magnetizations of the ferromagnetic films orthogonal to each other, and a magnetic bias is applied to the ferromagnetic film 73 by a current magnetic field generated by energization. Further, both ends of the MR element are provided with terminals 75 and 76 for detecting a reproduction output. In this embodiment, the number of terminals of the MR element is four. HGA with additional fuse
, The number of external terminals of the HGA is 6 to 8. However, if a mode in which magnetization is controlled by providing an antiferromagnetic film in the ferromagnetic film 73 by removing the terminals 77 and 78 in this MR element is selected, the number of external terminals of the HGA of the present invention is any of 4 to 6. can do.

[0043]

As described above, by using the structure of the present invention, the MGA can be used between the wafer process and the process of assembling the HGA or between the wafer process and the process of assembling the HGA to a stack or HDD.
Electrostatic breakdown of the R head can be prevented.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an HGA according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view illustrating a relationship between a wafer and a slider.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram illustrating a circuit for blowing a fuse with an MR head provided in the HGA of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a plan view of the MR head of FIG. 3 provided on a slider.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of the MR head of FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 is a graph illustrating a relationship between a resistance value of a fuse and an applied voltage.

FIG. 7 is a graph illustrating a relationship between a current pulse width flowing through a fuse and a peak current.

FIG. 8 is a perspective view of an embodiment of an MR element used for an HGA.

FIG. 9 is a perspective view of an embodiment of an MR element used for an HGA.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 2 external terminal, 3 4 external terminal, 5 6 external terminal, 7 printed wiring, 8 head gimbal assembly (HGA), 10 load beam, 11
Slider, 12 electrode pad, 13 bonding wire, 14 14a 14b 14c 14
d 14e 14f internal terminal, 15 air bearing surface,
16 MR head, 17 mount, 18 stage, 19 flange, 20a 20b terminal, 25
MR element, 25a 25b fuse, 26a 26
b electrode film, 29a 29b terminal, 30 wafers,
41 Permanent magnet film, 43 Mid shield, 4
4 lower shield, 45 substrate, 46 insulating layer 47 upper magnetic pole, 49 thin film coil.

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page F term (reference) 5D034 AA01 BA02 BA09 BA12 BA13 BB09 BB20 CA07 DA07 5D042 NA02 PA01 PA09 RA04 TA07 TA10 5D059 AA01 CA26 DA01 DA26 DA35 DA36 DA40 EA08

Claims (4)

[Claims] A slider provided with a magnetoresistive element; and a load beam supporting the slider.
The slider has four or more terminals, the load beam includes printed wiring, one side of the printed wiring is connected to a terminal, and the other end of the printed wiring is
A head gimbal assembly comprising at least two terminals. 2. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising at least four or more electrode pads for applying a current to the recording element and the reproducing element from the outside, and applying a current or a voltage between at least two of the electrode pads. A head gimbal assembly wherein a fuse connected to two electrode pads is blown. 3. A head gimbal assembly comprising a plurality of head gimbal assemblies according to claim 1 or 2 combined. 4. A recording element and a reproducing element are provided with at least four or more electrode pads in order to externally supply current to the recording element and the reproducing element, and a current or a voltage is applied between at least two of the electrode pads. A method of manufacturing a head gimbal assembly in which a fuse connected to two electrode pads is blown, wherein the fuse is blown using a current pulse or a voltage pulse after an assembly process of the head gimbal assembly is completed, and thereafter, the read element is A method for inspecting a short circuit or a dielectric strength voltage between the head gimbal assembly and the magnetic shield film.