Study for recovery process of damaged Al2O3 during ion milling to increase tolerance to ESD

Increasing the areal density of magnetic recording requires a thinner gap insulator between the magnetic shields and the giant magnetoresistive (GMR) sensor. Conducting tip atomic force microscopy and a defect imaging technique using electrodeposition were used to evaluate the electrical insulating characteristics of Al2O3 film in GMR heads. In this paper, the damage to the insulating film caused by ion milling and a defect recovery process are discussed.