Disc head slider having vertically contoured features and method of fabricating vertically contoured features on a slider

US6870707B1 · kind B1 · utility

Assignee

• Seagate Technology LLC · US

Inventors

• Lanshi Zheng · Eden Prairie, US
• Lance E. Stover · Eden Prairie, US
• Jianxin Zhu · Eagan, US
• Weimin Qian · Bloomington, US
• Lowell J. Berg · Rochester, US
• Moshe Olim · San Diego, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Jan 9, 2001
• Grant date: Mar 22, 2005
• Expiry date: Jan 20, 2023

Classification

• Technology area (CPC G): Physics
• CPC primary: G11B5/6005
• WIPO field: Audio-visual technology
• WIPO sector: Electrical engineering

Abstract

A method of contouring a surface of a slider for supporting a transducer relative to a data storage medium includes applying a lithographic resist layer to the slider surface. The resist layer is then exposed through a single mask having 3a mask pattern defined by variation in an optical density through the mask. The resist layer is exposed in an exposure pattern corresponding to the mask pattern. Portions of the resist layer are removed as a function of the exposure pattern to produce a vertically contoured resist layer. The slider surface is etched through the vertically contoured resist layer during a single etching step to form a vertically contoured surface feature within the slider surface.