Thin film head with staggered pole tips

The authors propose a cost-effective approach to reduce write track widths down to the sub-micron range. Thin-film heads with staggered pole tips, such that the track width is defined by the overlap of pole tips, have been fabricated with processes similar to the conventional thin-film head process. Both the transverse and the longitudinal configurations have been examined. Heads of both configurations have worked well, achieving satisfactory overwrite performance and track definition. Narrow track write heads capable of writing transitions as narrow as 0.7 μm have been demonstrated. such sub-micron write heads hold potential for achieving high track densities in conjunction with magnetoresistive read heads