Headway Technologies, Inc.

Writer head products for heat-assisted magnetic recording devices and methods of making the same are disclosed. The writer heads include multiple layers including a waveguide blocking layer, a waveguide layer, a near-field transducer layer, a heat sink layer, and a peg layer. The peg layer may comprise a small triangular section that extends from an air-bearing surface into the optical component. The writer heads further include a main magnetic pole adjacent to the optical component.

Writer head products for heat-assisted magnetic recording devices and methods of making the same are disclosed. The writer heads include multiple layers including a waveguide blocking layer, a waveguide layer, a near-field transducer layer, a heat sink layer, and a peg layer. Each of the layers may comprise a tapered angle near an air-bearing surface. The writer heads further include a main magnetic pole adjacent to the optical component including the same tapered angle near the air-bearing surface.

The present embodiments relate to a pre-assisting microwave assisted magnetic recording (MAMR) (PA-MAMR) write-head structure where the STO is disposed within a leading shield (LS). The STO can be used to pump energy into the media before the writing process. The STO can also pre-excite the media and let the media oscillation damp over the time and then switch under the writer field. The present embodiments can be easier to increase the magnetic volume and magnetic moment of the free layer, while also achieving a greater oscillation frequency with magnetization oscillations around the axis in the film plane.

Writer head products for heat-assisted magnetic recording devices and methods of making the same are disclosed. The writer heads include multiple layers including a waveguide blocking layer, a waveguide layer, a near-field transducer layer, a heat sink layer, and a peg layer. The peg layer may comprise a small triangular section that extends from an air-bearing surface into the optical component. The writer heads further include a main magnetic pole adjacent to the optical component.

The present embodiments relate to a write head with an asymmetrical side gap (SG) design. In the asymmetrical design, the main pole can be disposed offset to a central axis of the write head such that the main pole is closer to a first side shield (SS) portion than a second SS portion. The asymmetrical design can be achieved using an ion-beam etching (IBE) or ion-beam deposition (IBD) process. The asymmetrical design can provide a narrower side gap width while mitigating any writability limitations or constraints caused by scaling down the SG.

A magnetic recording writer is disclosed. The writer can include a main pole and side shields that have a first sidewall portion proximate to the ABS facing the curved sidewalls of the main pole and formed substantially conformal to the curved sidewalls up to a height of about 10 to 200 nm above the ABS, a second sidewall portion proximate to the corner connecting the first flared sidewalls and the curved sidewalls of the main pole and formed substantially conformal to the curved sidewalls up to the height of about 10 to 200 nm above the ABS, a third sidewall portion connected to the second sidewall portion and formed substantially conformal to the first flared sidewall, and a fourth sidewall portion connected to the third sidewall portion and formed substantially parallel to the ABS; and a side gap separating the main pole from each side shield.

A method of forming a read head is described where a Tunneling Magnetoresistive (TMR) stack of layers comprised of a free layer (FL) and having sidewalls separated by a cross-track width is formed on a bottom shield. In subsequent steps, a first insulation layer and longitudinal biasing layer are formed on the sidewalls and bottom shield. After a TMR sensor backside is formed that exposes the bottom shield, a second insulation layer and permanent magnet (PM) layer are deposited on exposed portions of the bottom shield. Thereafter, the PM layer magnetization is initialized in a direction that adjusts FL bias point, and shifts sensor asymmetry (Asym) closer to 0% for individual heads at slider or Head Gimbal Assembly level to provide a significant improvement in device yield. Asym is adjusted using different initialization schemes and initialization directions. With individual heads, initialization direction is selected based on a prior asymmetry measurement.

The present embodiments relate to a PMR write-head structure where the spin-orbit torque (SOT) material is in contact with the main pole in the write gap (WG). In addition, with the write shield (WS) electrically isolated from the side shield (SS) in the present designs, the current can be confined in the SOT material near the main pole, and the device resistance can remain within a reasonable range. It can be shown, using simulations, that the main pole switching rise time can be improved by 18˜24% using spin-orbit torque from heavy metals like platinum.

The present embodiments relate to a main pole design comprising a triangular shape and leading edge tapering for maximizing aerial density capacity. The design can include leading edge taper on the LS to create a taper angle on the MP to concentrate the magnetic flux in the MP. The MP can be shifted away from the LG to provide an additional LG portion on a leading side of the MP, and the taper angle can be greater at the additional LG portion than at the LG. The MP design can yield a larger MP surface area at the air bearing surface (ABS) and larger magnetic flux to the media bits.

The present embodiments can generally provide a magnetic write head structure with optimized gap current distribution to maximize the current-assisted areal density capacity (ADC) gain in hard-disk-drive storage devices. In a first example embodiment, a non-dual-write-shield (nDWS) write head can include a main pole (MP), a trailing shield (TS), and a write gap (WG) disposed between the MP and the TS. The write head can also include a side shield (SS), a leading shield (LS), and a write shield (WS). The write head can include a side gap (SG) between the MP and the SS on both sides of the MP tip, and a leading gap (LG) between the MP and the LS. The write head can also include a coil wrapped around the MP through a PP3 shield that is configured to direct a time-dependent write current to saturate magnetization of the MP.