JPH0573848A - Production of floating type thin-film magnetic head - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [PROBLEMS] The present invention is a flying thin film magnetic head capable of preventing scratches and chips on a thin film surface and mass-producing a flying thin film magnetic head of good quality with high productivity and high yield. An object of the present invention is to provide a manufacturing method of. A method of manufacturing a floating thin-film magnetic head according to the present invention is a method of manufacturing a floating thin-film magnetic head in which a slider is formed by subjecting a substrate having a thin film formed by a sputtering method or the like to mechanical processing such as cutting, grinding and polishing. A method of manufacturing, comprising a step of cutting a block substrate cut from a wafer substrate into row-shaped workpieces along aligned head elements, and a thin film surface 2 of the row-shaped workpieces 7 and 7'obtained in the above step. And a machining process such as cutting, grinding, polishing, etc., are performed.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing a floating thin film magnetic head used in a magnetic recording / reproducing apparatus.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, various thin-film magnetic heads have been developed with the spread of information equipment, and their manufacturing methods have been variously improved.

A conventional method of manufacturing a floating thin film magnetic head will be described below. FIG. 6 is a perspective view of a general thin film magnetic head.

In FIG. 6, reference numeral 1 is a slider body made of Al ₂ O ₃ -TiC ceramic material, 2 is a thin film surface formed by sputtering on one surface of the slider body 1, and 3 is precisely ground and polished. The air bearing surface 4 is a leading taper in which the end portion of the air bearing surface 3 is formed with an inclination angle of about 1 degree with respect to the air bearing surface 3, and 5 is a flying thin film magnetic head including the above components.

A method of manufacturing the flying thin-film magnetic head having the above structure will be described below with reference to FIGS.

FIG. 7 is a process diagram of grinding a slider body from a general substrate block. A circular substrate having a thin film and a pattern formed by a sputtering method or an electrodeposition method on a wafer substrate made of ceramics such as Al ₂ O ₃ —TiC system which is mirror-polished in the step (a) A square block 6 is ground along the above.

Next, in order to improve the processing efficiency in the step (b), a large number of head elements are precisely line-cut along the head elements so that they can be processed collectively, and grinding is performed to further improve the accuracy. The row-shaped processed product 7 is manufactured. Then, in step (c), the air bearing surface 3 is processed by grinding and polished to improve the surface accuracy, and in step (d), the leading taper 4 is similarly prepared by polishing. Finally, in step (e), the row-shaped workpiece 7 is precisely cut to complete the slider body 1.

Now, a method of processing the row-shaped workpiece 7 will be described. FIG. 8 is a cutting process diagram for cutting only a conventional row-shaped workpiece, and FIG. 8A is a perspective view of the row-shaped workpiece.
(B) is a perspective view after the cutting. FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram at the time of cutting. When cutting into the slider body 1, the thin film surface 2
Is exposed to the outside, the thin film surface 2 is likely to be cracked by the rotation of the cutting grindstone 8 due to the contact of the grindstone 8 or the damage at the time of cutting, so that the thin film surface 2 is scratched. The cutting is done with great care so that the thin film surface 2 is not scratched by the abrasive grains of the grindstone 8 or chips, and the productivity is low, and the productivity is low. The yield was also low.

This is because the Al ₂ O ₃ --TiC-based ceramic, which is the material forming the slider body 1, has a Vickers hardness (Hv = 2000) of the thin film surface 2 (Av).
This is because the l ₂ O ₃ protective film is a hard material that is extremely hard as compared with Hv = 400 to 800). When cutting composite materials with different hardness, it is difficult to select the rotation speed of the cutting grindstone, abrasive grains, grindstone, and cutting feed speed, and it is possible to cut the slider body 1 satisfactorily, but it is easy to chip Al ₂ O _This is because it is not easy to keep the appearance of the thin film surface 2 of ₃ good.

10 and 11 show an improved method for solving these problems of the cutting method of FIG. 9, which is a cutting process diagram showing a method of arranging the patch 9 on the thin film surface 2 and cutting. 10 (a) is a perspective view of the row-shaped workpiece to which a patch is applied, FIG. 10 (b) is a perspective view after cutting, and FIG. 11 is an explanatory view at the time of cutting. The purpose of this method is to prevent the above-mentioned problems that may be caused by the exposed thin film surface 2 by contacting the backing material 9 with the thin film surface 2.
Since the patch material 9 preliminarily processed to have substantially the same dimensions as the row-shaped workpiece 7 is brought into close contact with the thin film surface 2 and then cut by the cutting grindstone 8, the thin film surface 2 is protected from scratches on the thin film surface 2. It can be prevented to some extent.

[0011]

However, in the conventional method for manufacturing a floating thin film magnetic head described above, the cutting conditions are different due to the difference in the materials of the thin film surface 2 and the pad material 9, and so on.
It was impossible to completely prevent scratches and chips on the thin film surface 2. Further, since another material called the pad material 9 is further required, the cost is increased, and the pad material 9 must be completely brought into close contact with each other each time, resulting in an increase in the number of steps and a significant decrease in productivity. I had.

The present invention solves the above-mentioned problems of the prior art, prevents scratches and chips on the thin film surface, and enables mass production of high-quality floating thin-film magnetic heads with high productivity. An object of the present invention is to provide a method for manufacturing a flying thin film magnetic head.

[0013]

In order to achieve this object, a method of manufacturing a floating thin film magnetic head according to the present invention is a machine for cutting, grinding, polishing, etc. a substrate having a thin film surface formed by a sputtering method or the like. A method of manufacturing a floating thin-film magnetic head, wherein a slider is processed to form a slider, the method comprising: cutting a block substrate cut from a wafer substrate into aligned workpieces along aligned head elements; A step of bringing the thin film surfaces of the row-shaped workpiece thus formed into contact with each other, and then performing machining such as cutting, grinding, and polishing.

[0014]

With this structure, when the workpieces are machined, the same mechanical properties are brought into contact with each other and the thin film surface is restrained, so that the occurrence of scratches or chips due to the rotation of the processing grindstone is significantly reduced. However, it is possible to improve productivity and yield.

[0015]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

(Embodiment 1) FIGS. 1 and 2 are explanatory views for explaining a cutting method of the present embodiment, and FIG. 1 is a view showing cutting of a row-shaped workpiece cut along a head element from a block substrate. 4A to 4C are process diagrams, in which (a) is a perspective view when the thin film surfaces of the row-shaped workpieces are faced to each other, (b) is a perspective view when the thin film surfaces are brought into contact with each other, and (c) is the row-shaped workpieces. FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the slider body cut to the size of the slider body, FIG. 2D is a perspective view of the slider body, and FIG.

2 is a thin film surface, 7 and 7'are row-shaped workpieces, and 8 is a cutting grindstone. The thin film surfaces 2 of the row-shaped workpieces 7 and 7'are brought into contact with each other, and then the two row-shaped workpieces 7 and 7'are simultaneously cut by the cutting grindstone 8, and the two slider bodies 1 are cut by one cutting operation. I was able to get it. The thin film surface 2 was observed by taking a micrograph at a magnification of 100. The result is shown in FIG.

(Comparative Examples 1 and 2) As Comparative Example 1, only the row-shaped workpiece was cut by the method shown in FIGS. 8 and 9 of the conventional example. The thin film surface 2 was observed under the same conditions as in Example 1. The result is shown in FIG.

As Comparative Example 2, FIGS. 10 and 11 of the conventional example.
By the method shown in (1), the patch material 9 was brought into close contact with the thin film surface 2 of the row-shaped workpiece, and was cut. The thin film surface 2 was observed under the same conditions as in Example 1. The result is shown in FIG.

As is clear from FIG. 3, according to this embodiment, since the same kind of material of the thin film surface 2 is in intimate contact, this portion can be considered as a continuous single material, and therefore, the thin film surface can be considered. Since it can be processed under the optimum processing conditions for No. 2, it can be seen that it has the best appearance with no scratches or chips.

On the other hand, Comparative Example 1 had the most scratches and chippings as compared with the other processing methods, and particularly when the chipping occurred because the thin film surface 2 was a free surface, it propagated and the chipping depth was 3.
It has been found that there is a tendency to grow to 0 μm and to considerable size. In Comparative Example 2, the occurrence of scratches and chips was somewhat improved, and the chip depth was 5 μm. However, since the thin film surface 2 and the pad material 9 are different materials, it is considered to be a composite material processing, and it is difficult to process each material simultaneously under the optimum conditions. As a result, various small scratches and chips are generated, and the appearance is deteriorated. It can be said that there remains a problem with the quality of.

(Embodiment 2) A group of row-shaped workpieces in contact with the thin film surface 2 of the row-shaped workpiece 7 are arranged in parallel in a plurality of stages as shown in FIG. Thin film surface 2
It was possible to obtain four slider main bodies 1 having no damage in one cutting operation. From this, it was found that a high quality slider body can be manufactured with high productivity according to this embodiment.

(Embodiment 3) Next, the grooving shown in FIG. 5 was carried out by abutting the thin film surfaces 2 of the two row-shaped workpieces 7 and 7 ', but the thin film surfaces 2 were hardly damaged. The grooving could be done.

[0024]

As described above, according to the present invention, in the manufacturing process of the flying type thin film magnetic head, two thin film surfaces of two workpieces are brought into contact with each other and a large number of them are processed at the same time. Manufacture of excellent flying thin-film magnetic heads that can be mass-produced with high yield and at low cost while reducing scratches and chips and improving the appearance quality and magnetic characteristics. The method can be realized.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a cutting process diagram of a row-shaped workpiece that is row-cut along a head element from a block substrate during manufacturing of a floating thin-film magnetic head according to an embodiment of the present invention (a) Thin-film surface of the row-shaped workpiece (B) Perspective view when the thin film surfaces are brought into contact with each other (c) Perspective view when the row-shaped workpiece is cut into the size of the slider body (d) Perspective view of the slider body

FIG. 2 is a schematic view when cutting a line-shaped workpiece in one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3A is a microscopic observation view of a thin film surface of a slider body manufactured in this example. FIG. 3B is a microscopic observation view of a thin film surface when a row-shaped workpiece of a conventional example is directly processed. Microscopic view of thin film surface when processed using patch material

FIG. 4 is a schematic view showing a cutting state in the second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of a slider body when the present invention is applied to groove processing.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view of a general flying type magnetic head.

FIG. 7 is a cutting process diagram of a slider body from a general substrate block. (A) A perspective view of a block substrate cut from a wafer substrate (b) A perspective view of a row-shaped workpiece (c) An air bearing surface is ground and formed Perspective view of row-shaped workpiece (d) Perspective view of row-shaped workpiece with a leading taper ground (e) Perspective view of slider body

FIG. 8 is a cutting process diagram in the case of cutting only a conventional row-shaped workpiece (a) a perspective view of the row-shaped workpiece (b) a perspective view after the cutting

FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram when cutting

FIG. 10 is a cutting process diagram in the case where a patch material is disposed on a thin film surface for cutting in the related art. (A) A perspective view of a row-shaped workpiece to which the patch material is applied (b) A perspective view after the cutting

FIG. 11 is an explanatory diagram when cutting

[Explanation of symbols]

 1, 1'Slider body 2 Thin film surface 3 Air bearing surface 4 Leading taper 5 Levitation type thin film magnetic head 6 Block 7 Row-shaped workpiece 8 Cutting grindstone 9 Patch material

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A method of manufacturing a flying thin film magnetic head, comprising forming a slider by subjecting a substrate having a thin film surface formed by a sputtering method or the like to mechanical processing such as cutting, grinding and polishing, which is cut from a wafer substrate. Cutting the formed block substrate into a row-shaped workpiece along the aligned head elements,
A method of manufacturing a flying thin-film magnetic head, comprising: bringing the thin-film surface of the row-shaped workpiece obtained in the above step into contact, and then subjecting the thin-film magnetic head to mechanical processing such as cutting, grinding, and polishing.