JPH06325341A - Production of slider for magnetic head device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain a production method of a slider for a magnetic head device by which the formation of a resist pattern can be easily done by directly vaporizing the unnecessary part of a resist film with the irradiation of excimer laser beams for patterning. CONSTITUTION:A resist film 17 is formed wholly on the ABS surface of a rail part 15. A mask 18 having a pattern with apertures for ion etching is disposed above the film 17 and irradiated with an excimer laser beams 19 of wavelength matched to the absorption wavelength of the film 17. The film 17a is partly vaporized for patterning. Therefore, by irradiating the film 17 with the excimer laser beams 19 to directly vaporize the unnecessary part of the film 17 for patterning, the number of processes can be decreased and the resist pattern can be easily formed at low cost.

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 slider for a floating magnetic head device, and more particularly to a resist pattern forming step of forming a resist film having an opening window of a predetermined pattern on the surface of the slider facing the magnetic medium. The present invention relates to a manufacturing method.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A slider of a floating magnetic head device has a recording / reproducing magnetic head element at its rear end, and the surface of a magnetic medium such as a magnetic disk moving at high speed and the air bearing surface (ABS surface) of this slider. Levitation force is generated by the air flow that is pushed between and. The flying height of the slider is adjusted to an appropriate value by balancing this flying force with the spring force applied to the slider from the outside.

When a slider of this type is attached to and supported by the other end of a swing arm which rotates with one end as a fulcrum, a difference in relative moving speed of the magnetic disk with respect to the slider and a skew cause a disc inside the disk. The flying height differs between the peripheral portion and the outer peripheral portion. By forming a shallow step plane on the ABS surface of the levitation rail that is provided on the surface side of the slider that faces the magnetic medium and extends in the magnetic medium traveling direction, lateral pressure is generated and such skew and peripheral speed are generated. There is known a technique called TPC in which the difference in the flying height due to the above is compensated so that the inner and outer circumferences of the magnetic disk have the same flying height (for example, US Pat. No. 4,673,996 ( Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 61-27808
7), U.S. Pat. No. 4,870,519 and Japanese Examined Patent Publication No. 63-212271).

A negative pressure slider forming technique is also known in which the ABS surface of the slider is partially processed to form a negative pressure generating concave portion in order to generate a negative pressure that attracts the slider toward the surface of the magnetic medium. There is (for example
8488). The negative pressure slider is for generating a negative pressure by the air flow so that the spring force applied to the slider from the outside is small, thereby reducing the friction between the magnetic medium and the slider at the time of starting.

Furthermore, although it is similar to the step plane for flying height compensation (hereinafter referred to as TPC step), the ABS surface of the flying rail is partially ground to form its shape into a predetermined pattern. The shape rail forming technology for controlling the flying characteristics of the slider by doing so is already known.

The TPC step, the negative pressure generating recess or the shape rail as described above is a bar ABS in which a plurality of magnetic head elements formed by thin film technology are arranged in a line.
After forming the levitation rail by mechanical grinding on the surface side,
It is usually formed by performing ion etching (ion milling) from the BS surface side. The reason for using the ion etching process is that the depth to be ground is extremely shallow and highly precise pattern formation is required.

When slider processing is performed by such ion etching, it is of course necessary to form a resist film having a pattern portion to be ground open before ion milling. In order to form a resist film, generally, a dry film resist is laminated on the entire surface of the ABS of the bar, and a mask pattern is exposed to ultraviolet rays on the dry film resist by using a stepper or the like. A number of steps are carried out, developing and removing the part (in the case of a negative resist) and drying.

[0008]

According to the prior art, it is necessary to perform a plurality of steps such as ultraviolet exposure, development and drying, and it is necessary to use expensive exposure equipment such as a stepper. The cost will be high. Further, in order to improve the accuracy, it is required to perform difficult work such as increasing the accuracy of the bar attachment jig used in the exposure process or the like, or increasing the accuracy of the distance from the mask.

Therefore, the present invention provides a method of manufacturing a slider for a magnetic head device, which allows a resist pattern to be formed easily and at low cost.

[0010]

According to the present invention, a resist pattern forming step of forming a resist film having an opening window of a predetermined pattern on the surface side facing a magnetic medium is performed on the entire surface facing the magnetic medium. A step of depositing a resist film,
And a step of partially evaporating the resist film by irradiation with an excimer laser having a wavelength matching the absorption wavelength of the resist film and patterning the resist film.

[0011]

After the plurality of magnetic head elements are formed on the wafer by the thin film technique, they are cut into bars so that the magnetic head elements are arranged in a line. A levitation rail is formed on the ABS surface side of this bar by mechanical grinding to form a resist pattern, and then a predetermined pattern is formed by ion etching from the ABS surface side. To form this resist pattern, a resist film is deposited on the entire surface of the ABS surface, and the resist film is partially evaporated by irradiation with an excimer laser having a wavelength that matches the absorption wavelength of the deposited resist film and patterned. To do. Since unnecessary portions of the resist film are directly removed only by irradiation of excimer laser without performing steps such as ultraviolet exposure, development and drying, the number of steps can be reduced and the manufacturing cost can be reduced.
In addition, since the excimer laser with good straightness is used,
The pattern accuracy is greatly improved.

[0012]

1 (A) to 1 (C) and FIG. 2 (D) are process diagrams showing an embodiment of a method of manufacturing a slider for a magnetic head device.

After forming a large number of magnetic head elements by a thin film technique on a wafer made of a ceramic material such as Al ₂ O ₃ --TiC, the wafer is cut into a plurality of bars so that the magnetic head elements are arranged in a line. . FIG. 1 (A) shows one bar 10 obtained by cutting in this way, 11 is a plurality of magnetic head elements formed on a surface 12 which is the rear end surface of the slider, and 13 is an ABS surface, respectively. It represents.

As shown in FIG. 1B, the cut bar 10 has its ABS on the flat surface of a dedicated grinding jig 14.
The surface 13 is bonded and fixed so that the surface 13 becomes the upper surface. In this state, the surface of the ABS 13 is ground to adjust the throat height. Next, groove processing is performed from the ABS surface 13 side, and as shown in the enlarged perspective view of FIG.
5 is formed.

After the ABS surface 13 is polished (polished), the bar 10 is separated from the grinding jig 14 and washed. Next, ion etching is performed on the ABS surface, and a step plane 16 for controlling the flying characteristic is formed on the rail portion 15 as shown in FIG.

FIGS. 3A to 3C are cross-sectional views showing a step of forming a resist pattern on the ABS surface before the ion etching step.

First, the bar 10 is attached to an exposure jig (not shown), and as shown in FIG. 3A, a dry film resist 17 having a thickness of, for example, 15 μm is formed on the rail portion 15A.
Laminate the entire BS surface. The dry film resist 17 is a commercially available product having absorption wavelength characteristics as shown in FIG.

Next, as shown in FIG. 3B, a mask 18 having a pattern in which a position to be shaved by ion etching is opened is placed above the dry film resist 17, and the mask projection is performed by irradiating an excimer laser. To do. As the excimer laser, as shown in FIG. 4, it is preferable to use a rare gas halide laser of XeF having an oscillation wavelength in a portion of the dry film resist 17 where the sensitivity level is high.

As a result, the resist 17a in the portion irradiated with the excimer laser light 19 is evaporated and removed. Rail part 15 made of a ceramic material under the resist 17a
Since the energy required for evaporation is much larger than that of the resist, it is not attacked by the excimer laser light 19, and only the resist 17a on it is evaporated. As a result, as shown in FIG. 3C, a resist film 17 having an opening window 20 is formed at a position to be shaved by ion etching.

Next, the bar 10 is removed from the exposure jig and attached to a milling jig (not shown), and the ABS surface of the rail portion 15 is ion-etched. Ion etching is preferably performed with an ion beam that is not perpendicular to the surface to be etched but is tilted to some extent, for example, about 20 °, and the milling jig is about an axis perpendicular to the surface to be etched. It can be rotated. By this milling, the portion of the opening window 20 is scraped off, and as shown in FIG.
A step plane 16 for controlling the flying characteristics is obtained above.

After the resist film 17 is peeled off and dried, the bar 10 is removed from the milling jig and washed. Next, the bar 10 is adhesively fixed to a grinding jig (not shown) and cut into individual sliders, and then each slider is removed from the grinding jig and washed to finally obtain individual sliders.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, the unnecessary portion of the resist film is directly evaporated and patterned by the irradiation of the excimer laser light 19 without performing a plurality of steps such as ultraviolet exposure, development and drying. Therefore, the number of steps can be reduced, and it is not necessary to use an exposure device such as a stepper. As a result, the manufacturing cost is significantly reduced. Further, since the excimer laser having good straightness is used, it is possible to process a resist width of 100 μm with an accuracy of ± 5 μm, so that the pattern accuracy is greatly improved.

In the above-mentioned embodiment, the case where the ion milling process for forming the step plane for controlling the levitation characteristics on the rail section is provided is described. However, for forming the TPC step or the negative pressure generating recess described above. Of course, the present invention can also be applied to the case of having the ion milling step of, and further, it can be applied to other resist pattern formation.

[0024]

As described above in detail, according to the present invention, the resist pattern forming step of forming the resist film having the opening window of the predetermined pattern on the surface side facing the magnetic medium is performed on the surface facing the magnetic medium. The method includes a step of depositing a resist film on the entire surface of the substrate and a step of partially evaporating and patterning the resist film by irradiation of an excimer laser having a wavelength matching the absorption wavelength of the resist film. It can be reduced, and it is not necessary to use a device such as a stepper. As a result, the manufacturing cost is significantly reduced. Further, since the excimer laser having good straightness is used, the pattern accuracy is significantly improved.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a part of steps in an embodiment of a slider manufacturing method.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing a part of the process in one embodiment of the slider manufacturing method.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing a part of a resist pattern forming step according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing absorption wavelength characteristics of a dry film resist.

[Explanation of symbols]

 10 bar 11 magnetic head element 13 ABS surface 14 grinding jig 15 rail part 16 step plane 17 dry film resist 18 mask 19 excimer laser light 20 open window

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A method of manufacturing a slider for a magnetic head device, comprising a resist pattern forming step of forming a resist film having an opening window of a predetermined pattern on a surface side facing a magnetic medium, wherein the resist pattern forming step comprises: , A step of depositing a resist film on the entire surface facing the magnetic medium,
And a step of partially evaporating and patterning the resist film by irradiating an excimer laser having a wavelength matching the absorption wavelength of the resist film, and manufacturing the slider for a magnetic head device.