JPH0981908A - Method of manufacturing thin film magnetic head chip - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] (Correction) [PROBLEMS] To obtain a method for manufacturing a thin film magnetic head chip in which a conductive underlayer removing step does not damage a gap portion or a gap material and the manufacturing process is simple. SOLUTION: After the photoresist frame 7A is removed after electrolytic plating of a coil portion conductor layer 8A, the gap portion 3 is formed.
A step of partially covering the conductive underlying film 6A laminated on A with the gap protective layer 9A, and removing the conductive underlying film 6A other than the gap protective layer 9A by an etching method to complete the coil conductive layer 8A. The step, the step of removing the gap protection layer 9A and the step of temporarily covering the exposed portion other than the gap conduction base film 6a with the resist protection layer 10, and the removal of the gap conduction base film 6A by the wet etching method. A step of removing the resist protective layer 10 later, and a first step
The step of covering the surfaces of the insulating layer 5A and the coil portion conductor layer 8A with the second insulating layer 11A and the step of laminating the upper magnetic pole layer 12A on a part of the second insulating layer 11A were provided.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a magnetic head used in, for example, a hard disk drive, and more particularly to a method of manufacturing a magnetic head chip manufactured by a thin film forming method.

[0002]

As is well known, in a magnetic head of a hard disk drive device as shown in FIG. 15, a thin film magnetic head chip B formed at an end portion of a slider A made of a wear resistant material is used. However, the spiral coil conductor C of the thin film magnetic head chip B is usually manufactured by an electrolytic plating frame method.

That is, FIGS. 16 to 19 show a conventional method for manufacturing a thin film magnetic head chip. As shown in FIG. 16, a lower magnetic pole layer 2 serving as a magnetic core is partially formed on the surface of a wafer substrate 1. After forming the gap portion 3 in a part of the lower magnetic pole layer 2 which is laminated, the surface of the lower magnetic pole layer 2 and the wafer substrate 1 other than the gap portion 3 is left with the through hole 4 for the magnetic pole short circuit and the first insulation. Covered with layer 5. Then, a conductive base film 6 for electrolytic plating is formed on the entire surface of the wafer substrate 1, and a photoresist frame 7 having spiral slots 7a is laminated on the surface of the conductive base film 6 by a photoresist method or the like.

After that, in the electrolytic plating process of FIG.
After the u-shaped coil portion conductor layer 8 is electrolytically plated on the spiral slot 7a, the photoresist frame 7 is removed using an organic solvent as shown in FIG. 18, but in this state, the coil portion conductor layer 8 is formed. In the past,
As shown in FIG. 19, the conductive underlying film 6 other than the coil portion conductor layer 8 is removed by using the ion milling method.

[0005]

However, in the conventional conductive underlayer removing step as described above, it is necessary to completely remove the conductive underlayer film 6 by using the ion milling method. Even part of layer 2 may be removed. That is, when the surface roughness of the lower magnetic pole layer 2 increases due to the collision of ion particles by the ion milling method, the orientation and crystal grain size of the magnetic pole layer are adversely affected during the subsequent film formation of the upper magnetic pole layer, and When the gap material is laminated on the surface of the pole layer 2, the gap material is eroded, and a gap having a uniform thickness cannot be formed, so that there is a problem that the reliability of the product cannot be maintained.

In view of the problems of the conventional method of manufacturing a thin film magnetic head chip as described above, the object of the present invention is to prevent the gap and the gap material from being damaged in the conductive underlayer removing step. An object is to obtain a method of manufacturing a thin film magnetic head chip having relatively simple steps.

[0007]

To achieve this object, according to the present invention, after a lower magnetic pole layer is laminated on the surface of a wafer substrate, a gap portion is formed at a target portion of the lower magnetic pole layer to form a lower magnetic pole layer. And a surface of the wafer substrate, a first insulating layer having a desired shape is formed, a conductive base film is formed on the surface of the gap portion and the first insulating layer, and a spiral frame is formed on the surface of the conductive base film by an electrolytic flame method. Forming a coil layer conductor layer,
In a method of manufacturing a thin film magnetic head chip for removing an unnecessary conductive base film on the surface of the gap part and the first insulating layer, after removing the photoresist frame after electrolytic plating of the coil part conductor layer, the gap part is formed. A step of partially covering the conduction underlayer film laminated on the substrate with a gap portion protective layer, and after this step, the conduction underlayer film other than the gap portion protective layer is removed by etching to complete the coil portion conductor layer. A step of removing the gap protective layer, and temporarily covering a portion other than the exposed portion of the gap conductive underlayer with a resist protective layer; and removing the gap conductive underlayer by a wet etching method, followed by the same resist. A step of removing the protective layer; a step of covering the surfaces of the first insulating layer and the coil portion conductor layer with a second insulating layer; and an upper magnetic pole part of the second insulating layer. Method of manufacturing a thin film magnetic head chip and a step of laminating a proposes a.

Further, in a preferred embodiment of the present invention described later, after the lower magnetic pole layer is laminated on the surface of the wafer substrate, a gap portion is formed at the end of the lower magnetic pole layer to form the lower magnetic pole layer and the wafer substrate. The surface is covered with a first insulating layer, a conductive underlayer film is formed on the surface of the gap portion and the first insulating layer, and a spiral coil part conductive layer is formed on the surface of the conductive underlayer film by an electrolytic flame method. In a method of manufacturing a thin film magnetic head chip for removing an unnecessary conductive underlayer film on a surface of a gap part and the first insulating layer, a photoresist frame is removed after electrolytic plating of the coil part conductor layer and laminated on the gap part. The step of partially covering the formed conductive underlayer film with the gap part protective layer, and removing the conductive underlayer film other than the gap part protective layer by an etching method to complete the coil part conductor layer. A step of removing the gap part protective layer and covering the surface of the coil part conductor layer with a second insulating layer, and a surface of the part other than the gap part conductive base film exposed by the removal of the gap part protective layer as a protective layer A thin film magnetic head including: a step of covering the underlayer conductive underlayer with a wet etching method; and a step of laminating an upper magnetic pole layer on a part of the second insulating layer after removing the protective layer. A method of manufacturing the chip is also described. Further, the advantage of the present invention is also present in the magnetic head obtained by the manufacturing method of these thin film magnetic head chips.

[0009]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The details of the embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS.

1 to 9 show a method of manufacturing a thin film magnetic head chip according to a first embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 1 shows an electrolytic frame forming step of the method of manufacturing the same thin film magnetic head chip. That is, the lower magnetic pole layer 2A to be a magnetic core is partially laminated on the surface of the wafer substrate 1A, and the gap 3A is formed in a part of the lower magnetic pole layer 2A.
The bottom pole layer 2 having a target shape and having a shape other than the gap 3A
The surfaces of A and the wafer substrate 1A are covered with the first insulating layer 5A, leaving the through holes 4A for magnetic pole shorting. Then, a conductive base film 6 for electrolytic plating is formed on the entire surface of the wafer substrate 1A.
A, that is, a thin film of Cr, Cu or the like is formed, and the photoresist frame 7A having the spiral slot 7a on the surface of the conductive underlying film 6A is laminated by the photoresist method or the like.
It is the same as the conventional one.

Thereafter, in the electrolytic plating process of FIG.
After the coil portion conductor layer 8A is electrolytically plated on the spiral slot 7a, the photoresist frame 7A is removed using an organic solvent as shown in FIG. 3, but before the conductive base film 6A is removed. As shown in FIG. 4, the conductive base film 6A laminated on the gap 3A is partially covered with a thick gap protective layer 9A such as a photoresist layer to protect the thick gap. The conductive base film 6A and the gap portion 3 formed by ion milling in the layer 9A
Erosion of A is prevented.

Next, in the method of manufacturing the thin film magnetic head chip according to the first embodiment, as shown in FIG. 5, the conductive underlayer film 6A is removed by the ion milling method, but the conductive underlayer film by this ion milling method is used. In the case of removing 6A, since the gap 3A is sufficiently protected by the thick gap protection layer 9A such as a photoresist layer, the unnecessary conductive base film 6A is completely removed without damaging the gap 3A. Can be removed. That is, it is possible to prevent short-circuiting of the coil portion conductor layer 8A due to the residual conduction underlayer film 6A by sufficient ion milling to the exposed conduction underlayer film 6A, and to completely recover the magnetic pole short-circuiting through hole 4A.

Then, using a resist remover or the like, as shown in FIG.
As shown in FIG. 7, the gap portion protective layer 9A is removed, and as shown in FIG. 7, the resist protective layer 10 is laminated on the surface other than the gap portion conductive base film 6a to form the coil portion conductor layer in the subsequent wet etching step. Erosion of 8A is prevented in advance.

Therefore, in the step of removing the gap conductive underlayer film of FIG. 8, the gap conductive underlayer film 6a is completely removed by using the wet etching method.
Since the surface other than the gap conductive base film 6a is protected by the resist protective layer 10, the gap conductive base film 6 is not formed.
Only a is etched. Also, note that the same etching solution does not erode the first insulating layer 5A and the gap material at all.

After these steps, as shown by phantom lines in FIG. 9, the second insulating layer 11A is laminated on the surface of the coil conductor layer 8A with the coil through holes 11a formed, and the lower magnetic pole layer is formed. After the upper magnetic pole layer 12A is formed on the surface of 2A and the film formation is completed, the wafer substrate 1A is cut and the thin film magnetic head chip is completed.

In the method of manufacturing the thin-film magnetic head chip according to the first embodiment, the magnetic head chip is manufactured by the above steps, so that the first insulating layer 5A and the gap material are damaged in the gap conductive underlayer removing step. Because there is nothing to do
A stable thickness of the first insulating layer 5A is obtained, and the surface roughness of the first insulating layer 5A is also extremely fine. Therefore, in the forming process of the upper magnetic pole layer 12A, its orientation and crystal grain size The adverse effect can be stopped. Therefore, according to the first embodiment,
It is possible to obtain a thin film magnetic head in which there is no insulation failure of the coil portion conductor layer 8A due to insufficient removal of the conductive underlying film 6A, the gap portion 3A has a uniform thickness, and the upper magnetic pole layer 12A is formed well.

10 to 14 show a method of manufacturing a thin film magnetic head chip according to the second embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 10 shows a state similar to that of FIG. 6 described above. That is, the lower magnetic pole layer 2B is partially laminated on the surface of the wafer substrate 1B, and the gap portion 3B is formed in a part of the lower magnetic pole layer 2B. The surfaces of the magnetic pole layer 2B and the wafer substrate 1B are covered with the first insulating layer 5B, leaving the magnetic pole shorting through holes 4B, and the conductive base film 6B and the coil portion conductor layer 8B are formed by using the gap protective layer 9A described above. Be filmed. That is, although FIG. 10 shows the state in which the gap protection layer 9A is removed, in this ion milling step, the magnetic pole shorting through hole 4B is recovered by completely removing the conductive base film 6B.

Next, in the method of manufacturing the thin film magnetic head chip according to the second embodiment, as shown in FIG. 11, the second insulating layer is formed on the surface of the coil conductor layer 8B with the coil through holes 11a formed. 11B is laminated, and as shown in FIG. 12, a temporary protective layer 13B in a state of covering the surface other than the gap conductive base film 6a is laminated by a photoresist or the like, and a coil portion conductor layer in a subsequent wet etching step. Erosion of 8B is prevented in advance.

After that, in the step of removing the gap conductive underlayer film shown in FIG. 13, although the gap conductive underlayer film 6a is completely removed by the wet etching method, the surface other than the gap conductive underlayer film 6a is removed. Is the protective layer 13
Since it is protected by B, the conduction base film 6a of the same gap portion is formed.
Only those are etched. Also, note that the same etching solution does not erode the first insulating layer 5B or the gap material.

After these steps, the temporary coil part protective layer 13B is removed, and the upper magnetic pole layer 12B is formed on the surface of the second insulating layer 11B as shown by the phantom line in FIG. Is completed, the wafer substrate 1B is cut and the thin film magnetic head chip is completed.

In the method of manufacturing the thin film magnetic head chip according to the second embodiment, since the magnetic head chip is manufactured by the above-mentioned steps, the first insulating layer 5B and the gap material are damaged in the step of removing the gap conductive underlayer film. Because there is nothing to do
A stable thickness of the first insulating layer 5B is obtained, and the surface roughness of the first insulating layer 5B is also very fine. Therefore, in the forming process of the upper magnetic pole layer 12B, its orientation and crystal grain size are not changed. The adverse effect can be stopped. Therefore, according to the second embodiment,
It is possible to obtain a thin film magnetic head in which there is no insulation failure of the coil portion conductor layer 8B due to insufficient removal of the conductive base film 6B, the gap thickness is uniform, and the upper magnetic pole layer 12B is formed well.

As is apparent from the above description, according to the present invention, the conductive base film and the gap conductive base film used for forming the coil conductor layer can be accurately removed. It is possible to obtain a high-quality thin film magnetic head chip in which the thickness can be made stable and the adverse effect on the orientation and crystal grain size of the top pole layer is prevented.

[Brief description of drawings]

1A is a sectional view of an electrolytic frame forming step in a method of manufacturing a thin film magnetic head chip according to a second embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 1B is a sectional view taken along line bb of FIG. 1A. .

FIG. 2A is a sectional view of an electrolytic plating step in the method of manufacturing the same thin film magnetic head chip, and FIG.
It is sectional drawing which follows the b line.

3A is a sectional view of a resist removing step in the method of manufacturing the same thin-film magnetic head chip, and FIG. 3B is a sectional view of FIG.
It is sectional drawing which follows the -b line.

FIG. 4A is a sectional view of a gap protective layer forming step in the method of manufacturing the same thin film magnetic head chip, and FIG. 4B is a sectional view taken along the line bb of FIG.

FIG. 5A is a cross-sectional view of a coil part conduction underlayer removal step in the method of manufacturing the same thin-film magnetic head chip, and FIG. 5B is a cross-sectional view taken along the line bb of FIG.

6A is a cross-sectional view of a gap protective layer removing step in the method of manufacturing the same thin-film magnetic head chip, and FIG. 6B is a cross-sectional view taken along line bb of FIG.

7A is a sectional view of a coil part protective layer forming step in the method of manufacturing the same thin-film magnetic head chip, and FIG. 7B is a sectional view taken along line bb of FIG. 7A.

FIG. 8A is a sectional view of a step of removing a conductive film under a gap in the method of manufacturing the same thin film magnetic head chip;
FIG. 7A is a sectional view taken along line bb of FIG.

9A is a cross-sectional view of a coil protective layer removing step in the method of manufacturing the same thin-film magnetic head chip, and FIG. 9B is a cross-sectional view taken along line bb of FIG. 9A.

FIG. 10 is a cross-sectional view of the gap protective film removing step in the method of manufacturing a thin-film magnetic head chip according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 11 is a sectional view of a coil insulating layer forming step in the method of manufacturing the same thin-film magnetic head chip.

FIG. 12 is a sectional view of a coil part protective layer forming step in the method of manufacturing the same thin-film magnetic head chip.

FIG. 13 is a sectional view of a step of removing a gap conductive underlayer film in the method of manufacturing the same thin-film magnetic head chip.

FIG. 14 is a sectional view of a coil part protective layer removing step in the method of manufacturing the same thin-film magnetic head chip.

FIG. 15 is an enlarged perspective view of a partly cutaway main part of a conventional magnetic head for a hard disk.

FIG. 16 is a sectional view of an electrolytic frame forming step in the conventional method of manufacturing a thin film magnetic head chip.

FIG. 17 is a sectional view of an electrolytic plating step in the method of manufacturing the same thin-film magnetic head chip.

FIG. 18 is a sectional view of a resist removing step in the method of manufacturing the same thin-film magnetic head chip.

FIG. 19 is a cross-sectional view of a conductive base film removing step in the method of manufacturing the same thin-film magnetic head chip.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1A, 1B Wafer substrate 2A, 2B Lower magnetic pole layer 3A, 3B Gap part 5A, 5B First insulating layer 6A, 6B Conductive underlayer film 6a Gap part conductive underlayer film 7A, 7B Photoresist frame 8A, 8B Coil part conductive layer 9A Gap Part protective layer 10 Resist protective layer 11A, 11B Second insulating layer 12A, 12B Upper magnetic pole layer 13B Protective layer

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A first insulating layer having a desired shape on the surfaces of the lower magnetic pole layer and the wafer substrate by laminating a lower magnetic pole layer on the surface of the wafer substrate and then forming a gap portion at a target portion of the lower magnetic pole layer. And forming a conducting underlayer film on the surface of the gap portion and the first insulating layer and forming a spiral coil portion conductor layer on the surface of the conducting underlayer film by an electrolytic flame method. 1. In a method of manufacturing a thin film magnetic head chip for removing an unnecessary conductive base film on the surface of an insulating layer, a photoresist frame is removed after electrolytic plating of the coil portion conductive layer, and then the conductive layer stacked in the gap portion is removed. A step of partially covering the underlayer film with a gap portion protective layer, and a step of completing the coil portion conductor layer by removing the conductive underlayer film other than the gap portion protective layer by an etching method after this step, and The step of temporarily covering the portion other than the exposed portion of the gap conductive underlayer with the resist protective layer by removing the protective layer for the gap portion, and the step of removing the conductive underlayer of the gap portion by a wet etching method and then removing the resist protective layer A removing step, a step of covering the surfaces of the first insulating layer and the coil portion conductor layer with a second insulating layer, and a step of laminating an upper magnetic pole layer on a part of the second insulating layer. Method for manufacturing thin film magnetic head chip. 2. A first insulating layer having a desired shape on the surface of the lower magnetic pole layer and the surface of the wafer substrate by laminating a lower magnetic pole layer on the surface of the wafer substrate and then forming a gap portion at a target portion of the lower magnetic pole layer. And forming a conducting underlayer film on the surface of the gap portion and the first insulating layer and forming a spiral coil portion conductor layer on the surface of the conducting underlayer film by an electrolytic flame method. 1. In a method of manufacturing a thin film magnetic head chip for removing an unnecessary conductive base film on the surface of an insulating layer, the photoresist frame is removed after electrolytic plating of the coil portion conductor layer, and the conductive underlayer laminated in the gap portion is removed. A step of partially covering the ground film with a gap part protection layer; a step of removing the conductive underlayer film other than the gap part protection layer by an etching method to complete a coil part conductor layer; Removing the layer to cover the surface of the coil portion conductor layer with a second insulating layer, and covering the surface other than the gap portion conductive base film exposed by the removal of the gap portion protective layer with a protective layer, and a wet etching method And a step of laminating an upper magnetic pole layer on a part of the second insulating layer after removing the protective layer, and Production method. 3. A thin film magnetic head manufactured by the manufacturing method according to claim 1.