Method of manufacturing an MR read head which eliminates lead-to-shield shorts at the ABS of the MR read head

摘要

A method is provided for eliminating lead to shield electrical shorts at the ABS of an MR read head. The electrical shorts are eliminated by removing streaks of conductive material which extend between the conductive leads and the conductive shields across first and second insulative gap layers. A photoresist layer is formed over the edge surface of the MR stripe at the ABS along with coextensive widths of edge surfaces of other thin film surfaces at the ABS. The uncovered edge surfaces of the remaining thin film layers at the ABS are then subjected to reactive ion etching to remove about 500 ANGSTROM of the uncovered edge surfaces. With a photoresist layer approximately 10 mu m thick, the edge surface of the MR stripe is fully protected during this process. After the etching step, the photoresist layer is removed and the MR read head is free of electrical shorts between the leads and the shields. This method is especially adaptable for batch production of MR read heads where the MR stripes are arranged in rows and columns on a wafer. Strips of photoresist are formed over the columns of MR stripes for their protection while the unwanted streaks of conductive material between the leads and the shields are removed by the aforementioned etching process.