JPS6295716A - Manufacture of thin film magnetic head - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To reduce the working man-hour and to uniform the characteristic by cutting off a transducer formed in a matrix on a base in columnar direction together with the base to obtain a columnar slider assembly and dividing at each required unit through accurate grinding. CONSTITUTION:A transducer group arranged in a column direction on a base 20 where transducers are formed in a matrix is used as a unit column 30 and the base is cut off at each unit column to obtain a columnar slider assembly 30. Then a plane of the assembly 30 where the air gap of the transducers orthogonal to the plane formed with the transducer parts 10 is arranged is used as a floating plane 3 and accurate grinding is applied. After the accurate grinding, the base is divided into transducers at each required unit to obtain the unit slider assembly 1. Thus, the workig man-hour is reduced and the characteristic at each unit is uniformed.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Technical Field of the Invention] The present invention relates to a thin film magnetic head used in magnetic disk drives and the like.

[Technical background of the invention and its problems] In recent years, magnetic circuits and recording/reproducing coils have been formed using thin film forming techniques such as vapor deposition, sputtering, and plating, and pattern forming techniques by etching. A so-called thin film magnetic head is attracting attention as it has the possibility of batch manufacturing and high dimensional accuracy, and therefore has the possibility of lower cost and higher performance.

In order to realize high-density recording by applying this as a floating magnetic head to magnetic disk drives, etc., the transducer part, which consists of the magnetic circuit part that makes up the ring core and the recording/reproducing coil part, must be levitated by some method. Need to be mechanically coupled to the slider for.

In an ordinary thin-film magnetic head, a wafer formed by arranging a large number of thin-film transducers on a substrate made of silicon crystal or ceramic is used as a transducer consisting of a required number of transducer groups. Cut into deuser chips, adhere each chip to the slider with an organic adhesive made of epoxy resin, etc.
Thereafter, the slider assembly is fabricated by polishing so that the floating surface of the slider and the ball surface of the transducer are flush with each other.

However, in a region where the recording density of magnetic disk devices has improved and the floating amount of the slider assembly is micron or less, the amount of swelling of the organic adhesive due to moisture absorption is relatively large, and the coefficient of thermal expansion has decreased. is larger than the material of the slider and substrate, so even if aging or other treatments or precision polishing are performed, changes in environmental conditions such as temperature and humidity during use will cause the relative relationship between the slider and chip to deteriorate. It becomes difficult to avoid irreversible and temporal changes in the target position. In addition, the appearance of such fluctuations is difficult to control because it largely depends on the application and distribution state of the organic adhesive. Normally, the amount of variation based on the above reasons is 0
．． 2 to 1 micron, and when the flying height of the slider assembly is less than 1 micron, it not only greatly impairs the uniformity of performance as a magnetic head, but also tends to cause mechanical contact with the magnetic disk, which is a storage medium, which can be fatal. This may cause serious malfunction.

In contrast, the countermeasure adopted by conventional magnetic heads using ferrite cores is the glass fusion method, but when this method is applied to thin-film magnetic heads, it is difficult to use a permalloy metal magnetic material and a conductive material made of gold or copper. Because of the use of these materials, there is a risk that a diffusion phenomenon may occur between the materials during glass fusing treatment in a high-temperature furnace, or undesirable results may occur in terms of magnetic and mechanical properties due to residual stress.

Therefore, techniques have been disclosed to solve the above problems by configuring the slider of a thin film magnetic head using a blank plate of a transducer, and even by configuring the transducer and slider in an integrated manner (Tokuko Sho et al. 5
8-37606).

However, in this known method, the transducer formed on the substrate is divided and cut into the necessary number of pieces, and the floating surface of each cut chip is polished, which makes the work complicated and requires the surface leveling between the chips. There are variations in the
The problem is that it is difficult to make the detection characteristics uniform.

[Objective of the Invention] The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned circumstances, and although it has an integrated structure of a transducer and a slider, it is easy to polish the floating surface and surface it, and it is possible to make the characteristics of each chip uniform. An object of the present invention is to provide a method of manufacturing a thin film magnetic head that can be used to produce a thin film magnetic head.

[Summary of the Invention] In order to achieve the above-mentioned objects, the present invention utilizes vapor deposition, sputtering,
A plurality of transducers are formed in rows and columns on a substrate made of silicon, ceramic, etc. using a thin film formation technique such as plating and a pattern formation technique by etching, and the plurality of transducers are arranged in rows and columns together with the substrate. After cutting to obtain a row-shaped slider assembly, the surface of the row-shaped slider assembly on the side where the transducer voids are aligned perpendicular to the surface on which the transducer is formed is precision polished as a floating surface. The present invention is characterized in that a small slider assembly is obtained by dividing the transducer into necessary units.

[Embodiments of the invention] The present invention will be specifically explained below using Examples.

FIG. 1 is a plan view of essential parts showing the arrangement of transducers 10 arranged on a substrate (or blank plate) 20. As shown in FIG.

In the present invention, first, the transducer group in the above arrangement is cut into rows as shown by broken lines to form a row slider assembly 3.
0 is obtained. Here the transducer is vapor deposited.

They are formed in alignment on a substrate made of silicon, ceramic, etc. using thin film forming techniques such as sputtering and plating, and pattern forming techniques such as etching.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the column slider assembly 30 after cutting. In the figure, 1 is a slider assembly constructed using the blank plate of the transducer, 10 is the transducer part, 2 is the slider, 3 is the floating surface of the slider 2, 4 is the magnetic circuit part of the transducer, and 5 is the slider assembly. A recording/reproducing coil portion of the transducer, 6 is a lead wire portion thereof, and 7 is a groove portion for connection with a slider support mechanism portion (not shown).

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the main parts including a cross section of the transducer section. This transducer part 10 has a magnetic circuit part 4 and a leader part 6 on both sides of the magnetic circuit part 4.
It consists of a turn recording/reproducing coil portion 5, which is formed on a blank plate that also serves as the material for the slider 2. The magnetic circuit portion 4 consists of a lower core portion 41 and an upper core portion 42 made of permalloy, a coil portion 51 disposed between the upper and lower core portions, and a gap portion 52 made of gold. 52 long ball hide) is a part that requires precision during the polishing work described later.

The leader line section 6 is connected to a recording/reproducing circuit (not shown). In this embodiment, the slider 2 is made of alumina titanium carbide, and has a thickness of 4 mm as a base plate on which many transducers are formed.

The thickness of each thin film in the transducer portion 10 is approximately 2μ.
It's m.

Next, the manufacturing method of the present invention will be explained.

As mentioned above, the unit row 30 is a group of transducers arranged in the row direction on a substrate (or a blank board>20) formed with a group of transducers arranged in a matrix, and a cutter blade or the like is used for each unit row. After cutting to obtain a row-shaped slider assembly, it is processed and precision polished as shown in Fig. 2. That is, grooves 7 are formed on the upper surface of the slider 2, and the floating surface 3 is polished all at once. According to this polishing method, surface leveling is easier and the number of work steps can be reduced compared to the conventional method in which polishing is performed for each chip used. Uniformity can be achieved, and when divided into unit chips used, the characteristics of each transducer can be made uniform.

Thereafter, the slider assembly 1 is manufactured by dividing it into required units (chips).

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a floating state of the slider assembly 1 as described above, and 8 is a magnetic disk. The magnetic disk 8 is rotating at a speed U in the direction of the arrow, and the slider assembly 1 is applied with a pressing force W and is levitated near the transducer portion 10 at a height of hm. .

The present invention is not limited to the embodiments described above, but can be modified in various ways. For example, the material, configuration, shape and dimensions of each part of the transducer portion 10 and the slider 2 can be selected as appropriate;
The arrangement, configuration, etc. of the transducer portion 10 on the blank plate can also be modified and implemented as appropriate within the scope of the present invention. Further, in order to protect the transducer part, a ceramic, glass, alumina film, or other protective film may be applied to the surface of the transducer part at a processing temperature of 400° C. or less.

[Effects of the Invention] According to the present invention described in detail above, firstly, since the slider is constructed using a blank plate, the transducer and the slider can be integrated, and an organic adhesive unlike the conventional one is not required. Irreversible positional fluctuations over time are avoided, resulting in a very stable and uniform slider assembly. Second, instead of precision polishing of the floating surface for each chip as in the past, the entire surface is polished at once after cutting each row containing multiple transducers, resulting in extremely smooth surface. It is easy to use, reduces the number of work steps, and after polishing is divided into necessary units, each unit has the same characteristics.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view of the main parts showing the arrangement of the transducer in the embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the unit row section after cutting, and FIG. 3 is the main part including the cross section of the transducer. The perspective view, FIG. 4, is a diagram showing a floating state of the slider assembly. 1...Slider assembly, 2...Slider, 3...
Floating surface, 4... Magnetic circuit part, 10... Transducer part, 20... Substrate (base plate), 30... Row slider assembly. Figure 4

Claims (1)

[Claims] A plurality of transducers are formed in rows and columns on a substrate such as silicon or ceramic using thin film forming techniques such as vapor deposition, sputtering, and plating, and pattern forming techniques by etching, and the plurality of transducers are arranged in rows and columns together with the substrate. After cutting to obtain a row slider assembly, the surface of the row slider assembly on the side where the transducer voids are aligned perpendicular to the surface where the transducer is formed is precision polished as a floating surface. A method of manufacturing a thin film magnetic head, characterized in that a single slider assembly is obtained by dividing the head into individual transducers.