Fabrication and performance of high moment laminated FeAlN thin film inductive recording heads

Author

Wang, S. ; Liu, F. ; Maranowski, K.D. ; Kryder, M.H.

Author_Institution

Data Storage Syst. Center, Carnegie Mellon Univ., Pittsburgh, PA, USA

Volume

30

Issue

2

fYear

1994

fDate

3/1/1994 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

281

Lastpage

286

Abstract

Experimental thin film inductive heads using previously developed laminated FeAlN high moment soft magnetic materials have been designed, and fabricated to the wafer level. The heads, with a gap length of 0.2 μm and trackwidths varying from 6 to 84 μm, were fabricated with a mainly dry process. The dynamic domain patterns of the top magnetic poles were observed with a high speed wide-field Kerr microscope. Closure domains were not present, while multiple easy-axis domains were observed in the head yokes. The head inductances were measured from 1 to 50 MHz with a network analyzer. The electrical and magnetic testing results show that the fabricated heads function well at the wafer level and that laminated FeAlN high moment material is a very promising candidate for future high-density recording head applications

Keywords

aluminium alloys; ferromagnetic properties of substances; iron alloys; magnetic domains; magnetic heads; magnetic moments; magnetic thin film devices; 0.2 micron; 1 to 50 MHz; 6 to 84 micron; FeAlN; dry process; dynamic domain patterns; gap length; head yokes; high moment soft magnetic materials; laminated FeAlN materials; multiple easy-axis domains; network analyzer; thin film inductive recording heads; trackwidths; wafer level; wide-field Kerr microscope; Fabrication; Magnetic analysis; Magnetic domains; Magnetic films; Magnetic force microscopy; Magnetic heads; Magnetic materials; Magnetic recording; Materials testing; Soft magnetic materials;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Magnetics, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9464

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/20.312273

Filename

312273