Magnetic thin film heads. A review on processing issues

Since the first demonstrations of the concept of batch processing of recording heads, significant progress has been made in the design and processing of these magnetic transducers in order to extend their magnetic performance characteristics to higher areal density applications. The first simple devices had single turn coils, minimum gap dimensions of several microns, and trackwidths of several hundred microns. Today's devices have evolved to sophisticated thin film structures with complex, multiple turn coils, submicron gap dimensions, and trackwidths of several microns. It is the purpose of this paper to review the processing techniques associated with the fabrication of these thin film head devices.