Manufacturing method of a write portion for a thermal assisted magnetic head slider

Abstract

A manufacturing method of a write portion for a thermally assisted magnetic head slider includes providing a write portion including a write element, a waveguide, and a plasmon unit; lapping opposed-to-magnetic recording medium surfaces of the write element and the waveguide, and an near-field light generating surface of the plasmon unit; only forming a carbon layer on the opposed-to-magnetic recording medium surface of the write element. Corrosive elements in the write portion can be prevented from being corroded and the write element can be prevented from being worn and abraded not only, stable thermal ability for a plasmon unit can be maintained but also.

Claims

1. A manufacturing method of a write portion for a thermal assisted magnetic head slider, comprising steps of: providing the write portion including a write element, a waveguide, and a plasmon unit; lapping opposed-to-magnetic recording medium surfaces of the write element and the waveguide, and a near-field light generating surface of the plasmon unit; and only forming a carbon layer on the opposed-to-magnetic recording medium surface of the write element.

2. The manufacturing method according to claim 1, further comprising forming a low light absorption layer on the near-field light generating surface of the plasmon unit and the opposed-to-magnetic recording medium surface of the waveguide.

3. The manufacturing method according to claim 1, further comprising forming a low light absorption layer on the carbon layer.

4. The manufacturing method according to claim 1, the carbon layer is formed by etching.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

(1) The accompanying drawings facilitate an understanding of the various embodiments of this invention. In such drawings:

(2) FIG. 1a is a partial perspective view of a conventional HDD;

(3) FIG. 1b is a partial top plan view of a conventional HGA;

(4) FIG. 1c is a perspective view of a conventional thermally assisted magnetic head slider having a conventional thermally assisted magnetic head;

(5) FIG. 1d is a cross-sectional view of a conventional thermally assisted magnetic head slider;

(6) FIG. 2 is a perspective view of an HDD according to an embodiment of the invention;

(7) FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the HGA of the hard disk drive shown in FIG. 2;

(8) FIG. 4 is a perspective view of a thermally assisted magnetic head slider with a thermally assisted magnetic head according to an embodiment of the present invention;

(9) FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view of the thermally assisted magnetic head slider shown in FIG. 4;

(10) FIG. 6a is a simplified view of the write portion according to a first embodiment of the present invention;

(11) FIG. 6b is a simplified view of the write portion according to a second embodiment of the present invention;

(12) FIG. 6c is a simplified view of the write portion according to a third embodiment of the present invention;

(13) FIG. 7a is a simplified view of the thermally assisted magnetic head slider according to a first embodiment of the present invention;

(14) FIG. 7b is a simplified view of the thermally assisted magnetic head slider according to a second embodiment of the present invention;

(15) FIG. 7c is a simplified view of the thermally assisted magnetic head slider according to a third embodiment of the present invention;

(16) FIG. 7d is a simplified view of the thermally assisted magnetic head slider according to a fourth embodiment of the present invention;

(17) FIG. 8 is a simplified flowchart of a manufacturing method of a write portion according to one embodiment of the present invention; and

(18) FIG. 9 is a simplified flowchart of a manufacturing method of a thermally assisted magnetic head slider according to one embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF ILLUSTRATED EMBODIMENTS

(19) Various preferred embodiments of the invention will now be described with reference to the figures, wherein like reference numerals designate similar parts throughout the various views. As indicated above, the invention is directed to a write portion, a thermally assisted magnetic head, HGA, HDD with the same, and directed to manufacturing methods thereof, thereby preventing corrosive elements in the write portion from being corroded and preventing the write element from being worn and abraded, and keeping stable thermal ability for a plasmon unit.

(20) FIG. 2 is a perspective view of an HDD according to an embodiment of the present invention. The HDD 300 includes several HGAs 200, drive arms 304 stacked and connected to the HGAs 200, a series of rotatable disks 301, and a spindle motor 302 to spin the disk 301, all of which are mounted in a housing 309. The structure of the HDD 300 according to the present invention is not limited to that described above. For example, the number of the rotatable disks 301, HGAs 200 and drive arms 304 may be one. As shown in FIG. 3, each HGA 200 includes a suspension 290 and a thermally assisted magnetic head slider 230 carried on the suspension 290 which has a thermally assisted magnetic head as a thin-film magnetic head for reading from and writing into the rotatable disks 301. The suspension 290 includes a load beam 216, a base plate 218, a hinge 217 and the flexure 215, all of which are assembled with each other. Specifically, the thermally assisted head 230 is carried on the flexure 215.

(21) As shown in FIGS. 4-5, the thermally assisted magnetic head slider 230 includes a substrate 203, a thermally assisted magnetic head 340 embedded in the substrate 203 for reading and writing, and a light source module 220 formed on the substrate 203 for thermally assisted magnetic recording. In this embodiment, the light source module 220 is a laser diode module, but not limited to that.

(22) Concretely, referring to FIG. 4 again, the thermally assisted magnetic head slider 230 includes a leading edge 204, a trailing edge 205, an ABS 241 facing to the disk and processed so as to provide an appropriate flying height, an opposing surface 242 opposite the ABS 241, and a thermally assisted magnetic head 340 embedded in the trailing edge 205. The trailing edge 205 has multiple bonding pads 207, such as eight, to couple with a suspension 209 of the HGA 200. Specifically, the light source module 220 is mounted on the opposing surface 242.

(23) FIG. 5 is a cross-section view of the thermally assisted magnetic head slider 230. Concretely, thermally assisted magnetic head 340 of the thermally assisted magnetic head slider 230 includes a magnetoresistive (MR) read portion 341 formed on the substrate 203 and a write portion 343 formed on the MR read portion 341. For example, the MR read portion 341 can be Current Perpendicular to Plane (CPP) sensor, Current In Plane (CIP) sensor, tunnel magnetoresistive (TMR) sensor, giant magnetoresistive (GMR) sensor, or anisotropic magnetoresistive (AMR) sensor and the like.

(24) In this embodiment, the MR read portion 341 includes a first shielding layer 343 formed on the substrate 203, a second shielding layer 345, and a MR element 347 sandwiched between the first and second shielding layers 343, 345. And a pair of hard magnet layers (not shown) is sandwiched therebetween as well and respectively placed on two sides of the MR element 347. And the MR read portion 341 further includes a non-magnetic insulating layer (not shown) formed at one side of the MR element 347 far from the ABS 241 of the thermally assisted magnetic head slider 230.

(25) Referring to FIG. 5, the write portion 342 includes a write element having a first magnetic pole 344, a second magnetic pole 346, coils 348 and a first gap layer 352 sandwiched between the first and second magnetic poles 344, 346, and the write portion 342 further includes a waveguide 354 formed adjacent to the first magnetic pole 344 for guiding light generated by the light source module 220, and a plasmon unit 356 sandwiched between the first magnetic pole 344 and the waveguide 354 for propagating near-field light to the ABS 241. Commonly, the first magnetic pole 344 is a main pole, and the second magnetic pole 346 is a return pole. The plasmon unit 356 can be a plasmon generator or a plasmonon antenna. Concretely, the plasmon unit 356 includes a near-field light generating surface 3561 facing to the ABS 241. The plasmon unit 356 is made of nonmagnetic materials including Au, Ag, Cu, Al, Ti, Ta or Ge element, or alloy thereof such as, which has high light absorption characteristic and low light refraction index, and its thickness is in a range of 10 nm-1000 nm.

(26) During reading and writing operations, the thermally assisted magnetic head 340 aerodynamically flies above the surface of the rotating disks 301 with a predetermined flying height. Thus, the ends of the MR read portion 341 and the write portion 342 face the surface of the magnetic recording layer (not shown) of the magnetic disk 301 with an appropriate magnetic spacing. Then the MR read portion 341 reads data by sensing signal magnetic field from the magnetic recording layer, and the write portion 342 writes data by applying signal magnetic field to the magnetic recording layer. When writing data, signal current is conducted through the coils 348 and flux is induced into the first and second magnetic poles 344, 346, which causes flux to fringe across the pole tips at the ABS 241. This flux magnetizes circular tracks on the rotating disk 301 during a write operation. Meanwhile, laser light is generated from the light source module 220, for example the laser diode, and propagated through the waveguide 354 and guided to the plasmon unit 356. Then, the near-field generating surface 3561 of the plasmon unit 356 will generate near-field light which may be propagated to the ABS 241. The generated near-field light reaches the surface of the magnetic disk 301, and heat a portion of the magnetic recording layer of the magnetic disk 301. As a result, the coercive force of the portion is decreased to a value that facilitates writing; thus the thermally assisted magnetic recording can be accomplished successfully.

(27) Within the contemplation of the present invention, as shown in FIG. 6a, in the write portion 342, a first carbon layer 361 is covered on the write element. Specifically, the first carbon layer 361 with a predetermined thickness is covered on the opposed-to-magnetic recording medium surfaces of the first, second magnetic poles 344, 346 and the coils 348. Preferably, the first carbon layer 361 can be made by carbide or DLC material. While there is no carbon layer covered on surfaces of other elements such as the plasmon unit 356 and waveguide 354 in the write portion 342. Based on the arrangement of the write portion 342, on one hand, the first, second magnetic poles 344, 346 and the coils 348 are protected by the first carbon layer 361 from being corroded by oxygen due to the good oxygen barrier ability of the first carbon layer 361; one the other hand, the write element can be protected from being worn or abraded when accident touching or contacting with the medium, thereby keeping its reliability and a long using life. Furthermore, as there is no carbon layer on the plasmon unit 356 and waveguide 354, thus heat brought by the near-field light may not be absorbed and congregated on the surface during writing operation, so as to keep stable thermal ability for the plasmon unit 356.

(28) As an improved embodiment of the write portion 342, as illustrated in FIG. 6b, a low light absorption layer 363 is formed on the near-field light generating surface 3561 of the plasmon unit 356, for protecting the plasmon unit 356. Concretely, the low light absorption layer 363 is made by material which is one or more selected from TaOx, SiOx, AlOx, WOx, BCxNy, AlNx, SiNx, AlOxNy, SiOxNy, TiOx, ZrOx, MgOx, ZrOxNy, YOx, NbOx, and GaNx, which may absorb less heat energy, thereby preventing the near-field light generating surface 3561 of the plasmon unit 356 from protruding over the ABS 241 to crash the magnetic recording medium during the thermally assisted writing operation.

(29) Preferably, the low light absorption layer 363 is extended to cover the surface of the first carbon layer 361 and the opposed-to-magnetic recording medium surface of the waveguide 354, as shown in FIG. 6c.

(30) As an improved embodiment of the thermally assisted magnetic head slider 230, a second carbon layer 362 is formed on the opposed-to-magnetic recording medium surface of the read portion 341 as shown in FIG. 7a, to prevent the read element 347 from being corroded by oxygen due to the good oxygen barrier ability of the second carbon layer 362.

(31) Preferably, FIGS. 7b-7d show three variant embodiments of the thermally assisted magnetic head slider 230 based on the above mentioned embodiments. Differed from the embodiment shown in FIG. 7a, the second embodiment shown in FIG. 7b adds the low light absorption layer 363 formed on the near-field light generating surface 3561 of the plasmon unit 356, for protecting the plasmon unit 356. Differed from the second embodiment shown in FIG. 7b, the low light absorption layer 363 is extended to cover the surface of the first carbon layer 361, the opposed-to-magnetic recording medium surfaces of the waveguide 354 and the read portion 341, as illustrated in FIG. 7c. In the fourth embodiment shown in FIG. 7d, the second carbon layer 362 is covered on the whole read portion 341, and a low light absorption layer 364 is formed on the surface of the write portion 342 only.

(32) FIG. 8 is a simplified flowchart of a manufacturing method of a write portion according to one embodiment of the present invention.

(33) Step (801), providing a write portion including a write element, a waveguide, and a plasmon unit.

(34) Step (802), lapping processlapping opposed-to-magnetic recording medium surfaces of the write element and the waveguide, and a near-field light generating surface of the plasmon unit.

(35) Step (803), forming processforming a carbon layer on the opposed-to-magnetic recording medium surface of the write element.

(36) Preferably, the method further includes forming a low light absorption layer on the near-field light generating surface and the opposed-to-magnetic recording medium surface of the waveguide. Preferably, the low light absorption layer can be covered on the carbon layer. More preferably, the carbon layer is formed by etching.

(37) FIG. 9 is a simplified flowchart of a manufacturing method of a thermally assisted magnetic head slider according to one embodiment of the present invention.

(38) Step (901), wafer process. Concretely, the process includes providing a wafer with a plurality of thermally assisted magnetic head slider elements each of which has a substrate with an ABS facing to a magnetic recording medium surface, a read portion including a read element and a write portion including a write element, a waveguide, and a plasmon unit.

(39) Step (902), row bar cutting process. In this process, the wafer is cut into a plurality of row bars with a row of thermally assisted magnetic head slider elements arranged.

(40) Step (903), row bar lapping process. Concretely, surfaces of each row bar will be lapped in this process so as to obtain a predetermined requirement.

(41) Step (904), ABS formation. Concretely, the process includes forming a first carbon layer on an opposed-to-magnetic recording medium surface of the write element.

(42) Step (905), slider process. The row bar will be cut into a plurality of individual thermally assisted magnetic head slider; thereby the whole process is accomplished.

(43) Preferably, the method further includes forming a second carbon layer on an opposed-to-magnetic recording medium surface of the read element, and the first and second carbon layers are formed by etching, such as dry etching or wet etching.

(44) For example, a carbon layer with high energy is disposed on the opposed-to-magnetic recording medium surfaces of the thermally assisted magnetic head slider, then the portions of the carbon layer on the surface of the waveguide and the plasmon unit are removed by oxygen plasma such as reactive etching, finally the first carbon layer and the second carbon layer are remained on the corrosive elements, namely on the write element and the read element respectively. As an improved embodiment, a low light absorption layer is formed on the surfaces of the first and second carbon layers and the top surfaces of other elements of the thermally assisted magnetic head slider, so as to protect the near-field light generating surface of the plasmon unit and the opposed-to-magnetic recording medium surface of the waveguide.

(45) In conclusion, compared with the prior art, the present invention aims at providing improved manufacturing method of a write portion and a thermally assisted magnetic head slider, thereby the corrosive elements in the write portion can be prevented from being worn and abraded, and stable thermal ability of the plasmon unit can be maintained.

(46) While the invention has been described in connection with what are presently considered to be the most practical and preferred embodiments, it is to be understood that the invention is not to be limited to the disclosed embodiments, but on the contrary, is intended to cover various modifications and equivalent arrangements included within the spirit and scope of the invention.