Method for manufacturing a floating type thin film magnetic head

Claim 1

A method for manufacturing a floating type thin film magnetic head which comprises the steps of: (a) depositing a large number of thin film transducers in a matrix form on a lapped plain surface of a core block stock; (b) cutting up the core block stock into a plurality of narrow parallelepiped core blocks each including a row of thin film transducers; (c) lapping the recording medium-facing lateral plane of the narrow parallelepiped core blocks so as to prepare a slider surface of connected heads; (d) covering the lapped recording medium-facing lateral plane of the core block with a thin film patterned mask; (e) ion-etching the lapped recording medium-facing lateral plane of the core block by irradiating accelerated ions of argon gas through the patterned mask to provide air-bearing surfaces each having a prescribed width, the ion-etching step comprising placing the core block in a bell-jar of a sputtering apparatus, introducing argon gas thereinto which contains hydrogen gas having a partial pressure of about 1.6×10 -3 Torr, placing a moisture holding material in the bell-jar to substantially fix the content of residual moisture in the bell-jar, and supplying radio frequency electric power to the sputtering apparatus; (f) removing the patterned mask from the core block by a corrosive liquid; and (g) cutting up the processed core block into individual magnetic heads.

Claim 2

A method for manufacturing a floating type thin film magnetic head which comprises the steps of: (a) depositing a large number of thin film transducers in a matrix form on a lapped plain surface of a core block stock; (b) cutting up the core block stock into a plurality of narrow parallelepiped core blocks each including a row of thin film transducers; (c) lapping the recording medium-facing lateral plane of the narrow parallelepiped core blocks so as to prepare a slider surface of connected heads; (d) covering the lapped recording medium-facing lateral plane of the core block with a thin film patterned mask; (e) ion-etching the lapped recording medium-facing lateral plane of the core block by irradiating accelerated ions of argon gas through the patterned mask to provide air-bearing surfaces each having a prescribed width, the ion-etching step comprising placing the core block in a bell-jar of a sputtering apparatus, introducing argon gas thereinto which contains hydrogen gas having a partial pressure of about 1.6×10 -3 Torr, placing a moisture holding material in the bell-jar to substantially fix the content of residual moisture in the bell-jar, and supplying radio frequency electric power to the sputtering apparatus; (f) removing the patterned mask from the core block by a corrosive liquid; and (g) cutting up the processed core block into individual magnetic heads.

Claim 7

A method for manufacturing a floating type thin film magnetic head which comprises the steps of: (a) lapping two longitudinal perpendicularly intersecting planes of a parallelepiped core block cut out of a core block stock; (b) covering one side plane of the core block with a patterned mask; (c) ion-etching the masked plane of the core block through the patterned mask to provide pairs of air-bearing surfaces each having a prescribed width, the ion-etching step comprising placing the core block in a bell-jar of a sputtering apparatus, introducing argon gas thereinto which contains hydrogen gas having a partial pressure of about 1.6×10 -3 Torr, placing a moisture holding material in the bell-jar to substantially fix the content of residual moisture in the bell-jar, and supplying radio frequency electric power to the sputtering apparatus; (d) removing the patterned mask from the core block by a corrosive liquid; (e) depositing a plurality of thin film transducers on the other lapped plane surface at points corresponding to the air-bearing surfaces; and (f) cutting up the processed core block into individual magnetic heads.

Claim 8

A method for manufacturing a floating type thin film magnetic head which comprises the steps of: (a) lapping two longitudinal perpendicularly intersecting planes of a parallelepiped core block cut out of a core block stock; (b) covering one side plane of the core block with a patterned mask; (c) ion-etching the masked plane of the core block through the patterned mask to provide pairs of air-bearing surfaces each having a prescribed width, the ion-etching step comprising placing the core block in a bell-jar of a sputtering apparatus, introducing argon gas thereinto which contains hydrogen gas having a partial pressure of about 1.6×10 -3 Torr, placing a moisture holding material in the bell-jar to substantially fix the content of residual moisture in the bell-jar, and supplying radio frequency electric power to the sputtering apparatus; (d) removing the patterned mask from the core block by a corrosive liquid; (e) depositing a plurality of thin film transducers on the other lapped plane surface at points corresponding to the air-bearing surfaces; and (f) cutting up the processed core block into individual magnetic heads.

Claim 13

The method according to any one of claims 6, 9 or 10, wherein said step of depositing a plurality of thin film transducers is carried out by means of evaporation.

Claim 14

The method according to any one of claims 6, 9 or 10, wherein said step of depositing a plurality of thin film transducers comprises sputtering.