The fabrication process and the head material properties for shielded magnetoresistive heads with planarized lower shields using a tri-layered MR element are described in detail. Applying the etch-back process with low molecular weight polystyrene and CF/sub 4//O/sub 2/ reactive ion etching, the residual step height for a lower shield is dramatically decreased to less than 5% of the initial step height. The tri-layered MR element consists of an MR layer, a magnetic separation layer (MSL), and a soft adjacent layer (SAL). 40-nm thick Ni/sub 81/Fe/sub 19/ (wt.%) films were deposited by evaporation for use as an MR layer. Evaporated Ti MSL thickness was experimentally determined to be 20 nm. Amorphous Co/sub 82/Zr/sub 6/Mo/sub 12/ SAL films exhibited preferable magnetic properties as an SAL material. The fabricated shielded MR heads, using the tri-layered MR element with these NiFe, Ti, and CoZrMo films, provide superior capability to realize high recording density.
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机译：详细介绍了使用三层MR元件的带有平面化下屏蔽的屏蔽磁阻磁头的制造工艺和磁头材料特性。通过使用低分子量聚苯乙烯和CF / sub 4 // O / sub 2 /反应性离子蚀刻进行回蚀工艺，下屏蔽层的残留台阶高度显着降低到小于初始台阶高度的5％。三层MR元件由MR层，磁分离层（MSL）和软相邻层（SAL）组成。通过蒸发沉积40nm厚的Ni / sub 81 / Fe / sub 19 /（wt。％）膜以用作MR层。通过实验确定蒸发的Ti MSL厚度为20 nm。非晶Co / sub 82 / Zr / sub 6 / Mo / sub 12 / SAL膜具有更好的磁性，是SAL材料。使用带有这些NiFe，Ti和CoZrMo膜的三层MR元件制作的屏蔽MR磁头提供了实现高记录密度的出色能力。
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