Submicron thin film inductive head with self-aligned staggered pole-tips

摘要

A thin film inductive head having staggered pole-tips with a self-aligned recording gap region. The recording gap region is bounded by stepped pole-tip element with the steps made large with respect to the gap thickness. The pole-tip layers extend back from the air bearing surface to form a throat region that is also large with respect to the gap thickness. The self-aligned staggered pole-tip geometry is suitable for submicron track widths because the pole-tips may themselves be much wider and the self-aligned configuration avoids submicron masking and registration difficulties. The stepped pole-tip surfaces also eliminate the side-writing problem known in the art for overlapping thin film poles.