Manufacturing methods for write heads with floating side shields

摘要

Methods for manufacturing a magnetic head for a disk drive. The methods include the steps of depositing a first non-magnetic spacer layer, depositing a plating seed layer on the first non-magnetic spacer layer and plating at least one side shield and a pole tip layer on the plating seed layer, each of the at least one side shield and the pole tip layer separated by a trench. Then the method includes depositing a first non-magnetic material in the trench using ion-beam assisted deposition and planarizing using a chemical-mechanical polishing step.