Fabrication process for a trapezoidal main pole for single-pole-type heads

We investigated the fabrication processes used for single-pole-type heads for perpendicular recording. To solve the problem of side write/erase on adjacent tracks, it is necessary to develop a trapezoidal main pole for single-pole-type heads. We therefore proposed two different fabrication processes: (1) a process using electroplating and ion milling and (2) a damascene process using reactive ion etching and chemical mechanical polishing. We made the trapezoidal main pole using the damascene process. An evaluation showed that using a single-pole-type heads with a trapezoidal main pole solved the side write/erase problem. There was also no problem with the writing performance of the heads. To make a narrower track (less than 250-nm wide), we optimized the process conditions.