JPH0676237A - Thin film magnetic head and its production - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [PROBLEMS] To provide a thin film magnetic head in which a magnetic film is formed in a short time, manufactured at low cost, and high performance is maintained without impairing magnetic characteristics. [Constitution] In the lower core 2, a portion near a gap having a small magnetic path cross-sectional area and a connecting portion 6 of the upper and lower cores are formed by a magnetic film 2b having a high saturation magnetic flux density by a sputtering method, and a magnetic path has a large cross-sectional area. Is produced by forming the magnetic film 2a by a plating method. Also, in the upper core 5, the lower core 2
It is constructed in the same way as.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an HDD, a VT, etc.
The present invention relates to a thin film magnetic head used for R, FDD and the like and a method for manufacturing the same, and more particularly to a thin film magnetic head having an improved method of forming a magnetic thin film and a method for manufacturing the same.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art FIG. 4 shows, for example, IEE Transactions on Magnetics (IEEE).
TRANSACTIONS ON MAGNETICS) Vol. 26, No. 5, 1686-
FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a partial cross section showing a conventional thin film magnetic head, which was announced on page 1688 in 1990. In FIG.
Reference numeral 1 is a non-magnetic substrate, 2 is a lower core, 3 is a coil, 4 is a gap film made of alumina or the like, 5 is an upper core, 7 is an insulating layer, and K is a recording / reproducing device for recording / reproducing information on / from a magnetic recording medium. The surface. The protective film of the thin film magnetic head is not shown.

Further, Tw is a track width. Lower core 2
The upper core 5 and one end side of the upper core 5 are connected to each other by the connecting portion 6 to form a ring-shaped core having the gap film 4. The coil 3 is spirally wound around the connecting portion 6 between the lower core 2 and the upper core 5.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a manufacturing process of a conventional thin film magnetic head. First, a step portion is formed on the non-magnetic substrate 1 (see FIG. 5 (a)), and then a lower core is formed. The insulating layer 7 is sputtered, and then flatly polished until the lower core 2 on the substrate 1 is exposed (see FIG. 5B).
The first coil 3a is formed thereon, the insulating layer is sputtered, and flat polishing is performed again. Do the same for the second coil 3c, then etch the insulating layer,
The core of the gap portion and the shunt portion is exposed, and the gap film 4 is sputtered thereon (see FIG. 5 (c)). The gap material attached to the shunt portion is removed by etching. Next, the upper core 5 is formed, connected to the lower core 2 at the connecting portion 6, and faces the lower core 2 via the gap film 4 at the cap portion (see FIG. 5D).

The conventional thin film magnetic head is constructed as described above, and in recording, the magnetic flux generated by the signal current flowing through the coil 3 flows through the cores 2 and 5, and the magnetic flux leaks in the gap portion 4 to form the magnetic recording medium. The signal is recorded at the track width Tw. Further, in the reproduction, the leakage magnetic flux from the magnetic recording medium is picked up in the gap portion 4, and the change of the magnetic flux flowing through the cores 2 and 5 is converted into a voltage generated in the coil 3 by electromagnetic induction.

[0006]

When the conventional thin film magnetic head as described above is applied to a VTR or FDD, the magnetic head and the magnetic recording medium are rubbed against each other and the magnetic head is abraded, which is a serious countermeasure. It has become a challenge. Despite this wear, in order to secure the life, the gap depth Gd is increased to 10 μm or more, and in order to obtain good recording and reproducing characteristics, the thickness of the magnetic core is set to the gap depth Gd ( (See FIG. 4) It is necessary to make the thickness more than that.

However, it takes a very long time to form a thick magnetic core by the sputtering method, and a long time is required for the etching as well, which causes a problem that the throughput is lowered.

Further, if a magnetic film is attached to the stepped substrate by sputtering in order to shorten the etching time, there is a problem that the magnetic characteristics of the stepped portion are deteriorated.

The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and shortens the time required to manufacture a magnetic core,
It is an object of the present invention to realize a thin film magnetic head which realizes cost reduction and can maintain high performance even when the contact surface of the magnetic head with the recording medium is worn.

[0010]

In a thin film magnetic head according to the present invention, a lower core and an upper core formed of a thin film are opposed to each other through a gap film on one end side and connected by a connecting portion on the other end side. A thin film magnetic head in which a coil is arranged via an insulating layer so as to surround the connection portion, and the upper core and / or the lower core are formed by using a plating method and a sputtering method in combination. It is a thin film.

A thin film magnetic head according to a second aspect of the present invention is
The lower core and the upper core formed of a thin film are arranged so as to face each other through the gap film on one end side and to be connected by the connecting portion on the other end side, and the coil surrounds the connecting portion via an insulating layer. A thin-film magnetic head that is arranged in a manner such that the gap part of the lower core, the connection part with the upper core, and the lowermost magnetic film of the upper core are formed by the sputtering method, and the magnetic films of the other parts of the core are plated. It is characterized by being formed by a method.

Further, in the method of manufacturing a thin film magnetic head according to a third aspect of the invention, a plating underlayer film is formed on a non-magnetic substrate, a magnetic film is formed on the plating underlayer film by a plating method, and a magnetic film is formed by a sputtering method. Are stacked, and the gap and the connection to the upper core are patterned into a predetermined shape by etching to form a lower core, and a coil is formed on the lower core via an insulating layer. And forming a protective layer.

Further, in the manufacturing method according to claim 4, a plating underlayer film is formed on a non-magnetic substrate, a pattern is formed on the plating underlayer film with a resist film, and a magnetic material is plated,
After removing the resist film, a magnetic material is further sputtered, the gap portion and the connection portion with the upper core are patterned into a predetermined shape to form a lower core, and a coil is formed on the lower core via an insulating layer. In addition, the gap film, the upper core and the protective layer are further formed.

Further, in the manufacturing method according to claim 5, a plating base film is formed on the non-magnetic substrate, an inorganic insulating film is formed on the plating base film, and the lower core forming place is removed by etching to form a frame member. Using the frame member as a mask, a magnetic material is plated in the frame of the frame member, and the magnetic material is sputtered to pattern the gap portion and the connection portion with the upper core into a predetermined shape to form a lower core. A coil is formed on the core via an insulating layer, and a gap film, an upper core and a protective layer are further formed.

Further, according to the manufacturing method of claim 6, after the lower core, the insulating layer, the coil, the gap film and the insulating layer are sequentially formed on the non-magnetic substrate, the magnetic material is sputtered and further the magnetic material is plated. It is characterized in that a magnetic film is laminated and the magnetic film is etched into a predetermined shape to form an upper core.

Further, in the manufacturing method according to claim 7, the lower core, the insulating layer, the coil, the gap film and the insulating layer are sequentially formed on the non-magnetic substrate, the magnetic material is sputtered, and the resist film is used as a mask. Is patterned to laminate a magnetic film, and after removing the resist film, the patterned magnetic film is used as a mask to etch the magnetic film formed by the sputtering method to have a predetermined shape and a predetermined thickness. It is characterized by forming a core.

[0017]

According to the thin-film magnetic head and the method of manufacturing the same of the present invention, the gap portion having a narrow magnetic cross-sectional area and the connecting portion of the upper and lower cores are formed by the magnetic film having a high saturation magnetic flux density formed by the sputtering method. The large core area consists of a magnetic film formed in a short time by the plating method, and the decrease in saturation magnetic flux density is compensated for by the cross-sectional area. It is possible to obtain a high-performance thin-film magnetic head without the deterioration of the magnetic characteristics at the lower core step portion as well as the cost reduction.

[0018]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The magnetic head of the present invention and its manufacturing method will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[Embodiment 1] FIG. 1 is a plan view of a thin film magnetic head according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG.
FIG. In FIGS. 1 and 2, 9 is a plating underlayer film of the lower core, and a permalloy film (Fe—Ni alloy) is formed by a sputtering method in an amount of 0.1 to 0.2 μm. The lower core 2 is composed of a magnetic film 2a formed by a plating method and a magnetic film 2b formed by a sputtering method.
5 is an upper core, which is a magnetic film 5 formed by a sputtering method.
a and a magnetic film 5b formed by a plating method. Gd is the gap depth. Others 1 to 8 are the same as those of the conventional thin film magnetic head (the protective film 8 is not shown in the conventional example).

In the present embodiment, the vicinity of the gap film 4 having a narrow magnetic path cross-sectional area and the connecting portions 6 of the upper and lower cores 2 and 5 are formed of a magnetic film having a high saturation magnetic flux density by the sputtering method, and the magnetic path is cut off. The lower core 2 is formed by forming a film on a portion having a large area by a plating method. The upper core 5 is also formed in the same manner as the lower core 2. Since the magnetic film formed by the sputtering method can be formed of a Co-Zr-Nb alloy, the saturation magnetic flux density is high, but the magnetic film formed by the plating method is an Fe-Ni alloy, and the saturation magnetic flux density is low. However, since the magnetic film formed by the sputtering method is used for the portion having a small cross-sectional area, the magnetic characteristics are not affected at all.

However, even if both the upper and lower cores are not formed by the plating method and the sputtering method, only one of them is formed by both methods, and the other (for example, the upper core) is formed by only the sputtering method, the formation time is shortened. Have the effect of.

The structure of the conventional thin film magnetic head is the same as that of the conventional thin film magnetic head except that the upper and lower cores are formed.

Next, a method of manufacturing the thin film magnetic head according to one embodiment of the present invention will be described.

First, a plating base film 9 is formed on the surface of the non-magnetic substrate 1. Specifically, Cu, permalloy (Fe-N
A metal such as i alloy) is formed into a plating base film 9 having a thickness of 0.1 to 0.2 μm by a sputtering method, a vapor deposition method, or the like, a resist is applied, and patterning is performed in a photolithography process to remove the resist only in the lower core formation portion.

Next, a magnetic material is plated on the plating base film 9 by a plating method to form the magnetic film 2a. Specifically, a magnetic material made of Fe-Ni is formed on the plating base film 9 by 5 to 6 μm by electrolytic plating in a magnetic field. When the current was 200 mA, it could be formed in 25 to 30 minutes. After that, the resist used as the mask was removed.

Next, a magnetic material is deposited by a sputtering method, and the gap portion and the connection portion with the upper core are patterned into a predetermined shape to form the lower core 2. Specifically, Co-
Argon gas pressure 5mTor for magnetic material made of Zr-Nb
Sputtering was performed for 170 to 210 minutes under the conditions of r and sputter power of 1 KW to form a magnetic film 2b of 5 to 6 μm. Subsequently, masking was performed with a resist film, leaving only the connecting portion between the gap portion and the upper core, and removing the other portion to form a magnetic film 2b by sputtering. At this time, the plating base film 9 in the unnecessary portion is also removed.

Next, the insulating layer 7a,
The coil 3a, the insulating layer 7b, the coil connecting portion 3b, the upper coil 3c, and the insulating layer 7c are sequentially formed to expose the gap portion and the connecting portion lower core 2b to form the gap film 4.

After that, a magnetic material is formed by a sputtering method, a magnetic film is further formed by a plating method, and patterning is performed to form an upper core. Further, by forming the protective film 8, the magnetic head is formed.

As described above, by using either the upper core or the lower core in combination with the sputtering method and the plating method, a thick magnetic film can be formed in a short time, and the upper core is formed only by the sputtering method. In addition, when the lower core is formed only by the sputtering method, the plating base film is unnecessary.

[Embodiment 2] In the above-described embodiment, a resist film is applied on the plating base film 9 to pattern the resist film, the lower core magnetic film 2a is formed by the plating method, and then the resist film is removed. As explained in the example, the plating base film 9
Patterning is performed, a magnetic material is plated by a plating method while leaving the plating base film 9 only at the lower core formation location, and after the plating, a magnetic material is further formed by a sputtering method,
The lower core 2 can also be formed by patterning the gap portion and the connection portion into a predetermined shape. At this time, the plating base film 9 in the unnecessary portion is also removed.
After that, insulating layer 7 (7a, 7b, 7c), coil 3
The formation of (3a, 3b, 3c), the upper core 5 (5a, 5b), etc. is the same as described above.

[Embodiment 3] FIG. 3 is a sectional view of a thin film magnetic head manufactured according to still another embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, the plating base film 9 formed on the non-magnetic substrate 1
An inorganic insulating film is formed in a place where the lower core 2 is not formed, in the same thickness as the thickness of the magnetic film formed by plating.
The magnetic material for the lower core is used as the frame member 10 for pattern plating, and is left as it is even after the magnetic material for the lower core is formed on the plating base film 9, and thereafter the insulating layer 7a is formed on the surface of the magnetic film formed by plating. It was made possible. As a result, the insulating layer 7a can be formed in a short time.

The frame member 10 for pattern plating is formed by forming an insulating film by, for example, a CVD method, a sputtering method, a vapor deposition method or the like, and etching and removing only the lower core formation location by etching by a reactive ion etching method or the like.

At the time of this etching, the insulating film is preferably made of an inorganic material which can have a large etching rate selection ratio with respect to the plating underlayer film 9. For example, when permalloy is used for the plating underlayer film 9, it is used for pattern plating. The frame member 12 is made of Al ₂ O ₃ , Si ₃ N ₄ O, SiN _x , SiO _x.
Are used.

After the magnetic film is formed by plating, the magnetic film is formed by sputtering to form the lower core,
The insulating layer, the coil, the upper core, etc. are formed in the same manner as in the above-mentioned embodiment.

[Embodiment 4] In this embodiment, the upper core is formed by the sputtering method and the plating method, and the lower core is formed by using the magnetic film 2a formed by the plating method and the magnetic film 2b formed by the sputtering method. After forming the coil, the insulating layer, and the gap film by one of the methods, Co.
-Zr-Nb is sputtered for 170 to 210 minutes to form a magnetic film 5a with a film thickness of 5 to 6 μm.
After plating for 5 minutes, a magnetic film 5b having a thickness of 5 to 6 μm was laminated, and the upper core 5 having a predetermined shape was formed using the resist film as a mask.

[Embodiment 5] This embodiment is an example in which the patterning method of the upper core of Embodiment 4 is changed, and after forming the magnetic film 5a by sputtering, the upper core shape is masked with a resist film to form Fe-- A magnetic material such as Ni is pattern-plated to stack the magnetic film 5b, the resist film is removed, and then the magnetic film 5a formed by the sputtering is ion beam-coated with the patterned magnetic film 5b as a mask. Etching is performed by etching or the like to form a predetermined shape. At this time, since the magnetic film 5b formed by the plating method is also removed by etching, it is necessary to thicken the plating in anticipation of the decrease.

When plating the magnetic film 5b of the upper core, the magnetic film 5a formed by sputtering is also used as a plating base film.

[0038]

As described above, according to the present invention, since the lower core and / or the upper core are formed by using the plating method and the sputtering method in combination, the time required for producing the upper and lower cores can be shortened. In addition to cost reduction, the small cross-sectional area is formed by sputtering,
There is an effect that it is possible to obtain a high-performance thin film magnetic head without affecting the magnetic characteristics at all and without deteriorating the magnetic characteristics at the lower core step portion.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view showing a thin film magnetic head according to a first embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line AA of FIG. 1 showing the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view showing another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a partial cross-sectional perspective view showing a conventional thin film magnetic head.

FIG. 5 is a manufacturing process diagram of a conventional thin film magnetic head.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 non-magnetic substrate 2 lower core 2a magnetic film by lower core plating method 2b magnetic film by lower core sputtering method 3 coil 4 gap film 5 upper core 5a magnetic film by upper core sputtering method 5b magnetic property by upper core plating method Film 6 Connection 7 Insulation layer 8 Protective film 9 Plating base film 10 Frame member

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. A lower core and an upper core, which are formed of a thin film, are arranged so as to face each other through a gap film on one end side and to be connected by a connecting portion on the other end side, and a coil that surrounds the connecting portion. Is a thin film magnetic head having an insulating layer interposed therebetween, wherein the upper core and / or the lower core is a thin film formed by using a plating method and a sputtering method in combination. 2. A lower core and an upper core, which are formed of a thin film, are arranged so as to face each other through a gap film on one end side and to be connected by a connecting portion on the other end side, and a coil is wound around the connecting portion. Is a thin-film magnetic head in which an insulating layer is arranged via an insulating layer, the gap part of the lower core and the connection part with the upper core, and the magnetic film of the lowermost layer of the upper core are formed by a sputtering method, and the other parts of the core are formed. 2. A thin film magnetic head characterized in that the magnetic film is formed by a plating method. 3. A plating base film is formed on a non-magnetic substrate,
A magnetic film is formed on the plating base film by a plating method, a magnetic film is further laminated by a sputtering method, and the gap portion and the connection portion with the upper core are patterned into a predetermined shape by etching to form a lower core. A method of manufacturing a thin film magnetic head, characterized in that a coil is formed on a lower core via an insulating layer, and a gap film, an upper core and a protective layer are further formed. 4. A plating base film is formed on a non-magnetic substrate,
A pattern is formed on the plating base film with a resist film to plate a magnetic material, the resist film is removed, and then the magnetic material is sputtered to pattern the gap portion and the connection portion with the upper core into a predetermined shape. A method of manufacturing a thin film magnetic head, comprising forming a lower core, forming a coil on the lower core via an insulating layer, and further forming a gap film, an upper core and a protective layer. 5. A plating underlayer film is formed on a non-magnetic substrate,
An inorganic insulating film is formed on the plating base film, the lower core formation location is removed by etching to form a frame member, the frame member is used as a mask to plate a magnetic material in the frame of the frame member, and the magnetic material is further sputtered. To form a lower core by patterning the gap portion and the connection portion with the upper core into a predetermined shape, form a coil on the lower core via an insulating layer, and further form a gap film, an upper core and a protective layer. A method of manufacturing a thin-film magnetic head, characterized by: 6. A lower core, an insulating layer, a coil, a gap film, and an insulating layer are sequentially formed on a non-magnetic substrate, a magnetic material is sputtered, and a magnetic material is plated to form a laminated magnetic film. A method of manufacturing a thin film magnetic head, which comprises etching the film into a predetermined shape to form an upper core. 7. A magnetic film is formed by sequentially forming a lower core, an insulating layer, a coil, a gap film, and an insulating layer on a non-magnetic substrate, then sputtering a magnetic material, and pattern-plating the magnetic material using a resist film as a mask. After laminating and removing the resist film, the magnetic film formed by the sputtering method is etched by using the patterned magnetic film as a mask to form an upper core having a predetermined shape and a predetermined thickness. Method of manufacturing thin film magnetic head.