High Selectivity Etching for Texture Fabrication on Air Bearing Surface

Reactive ion etching processes for texture fabrication on air bearing surface is investigated to improve the etching selectivity between Al₂O₃ and TiC. Etching parameters, such as gas flow rate, pressure, ICP power, and RF power, are optimized. The high selectivity etching between Al₂O₃ and TiC is achievable by the ICP reactive ion etching with CF₄. The selectivity between Al₂O₃ and TiC can be larger than 6, it means that the Al₂O₃ is only etched 1 nm to fabricate texture with more than 5-nm height. The experimental results show that the textured sliders fabricated with the developed process can prevent sharp increase of friction force and reduce contact vibration