Fabrication of magnetic recording heads and dry etching of head materials

The fabrication of magnetic recording heads is briefly described and compared with the fabrication of semiconductor integrated circuits. Relevant dry-etching processes are then reviewed. The processes include broad-beam ion etching, the primary dry-etching method used in recording-head manufacturing, and reactive ion etching, a promising process technique for future recording-head fabrication. For broad-beam ion etching, process issues such as the angular dependence of the etching rate, redeposition, and etching selectivity are discussed. For reactive ion etching, chemical aspects of the etching of nickel-iron, copper, hard-baked resist, aluminum oxide, tantalum, and titanium carbide/aluminum oxide substrate are reviewed, and some relevant examples are discussed. Although still not a mainstream process in the recording-head technology, reactive ion etching is expected to play a more important role in that technology in the future. © 1999 IBM.