MAGNETIC MEDIA FORMATTED WITH AN INTEGRATED THIN FILM SUBGAP SUBPOLE STRUCTURE FOR ARBITRARY GAP PATTERN MAGNETIC RECORDING HEAD

An arbitrary gap thin film magnetic recording head is fabricated by forming a substrate based on traditional vertical planar thin film head wafer technology which is designed to produce an integrated subgap and subpole substrate structure. The wafer is then processed into row bars to reveal, in a plane parallel to the transducing direction of the medium, the subgap and subpoles at the surface of the row bar and to bring the structure to a certain coil depth or gap depth. A flat or cylindrical contour may be utilized. This thin film subgap row bar is taken through a film deposition or growth process that deposits the magnetic film on a plane perpendicular to the wafer plane, horizontal planar processing, forming a surface film recording head where an arbitrary gap structure can be made in-between the subpoles and generally directly on top of the subgap. The surface thin film is deposited and patterned on the tape bearing surface of the head to optimize various element configurations, gap patterns and head-to-tape medium contact. An arbitrary gap thin film magnetic recording head is manufactured using two major thin film processing planes, one orthogonal to the other, the first major plane is wafer level and the second major plane is sub-wafer level and perpendicular to the first. The first major plane of processing defines the magnetically active substrate including coils, subgap and subpole members. The second major plane of processing defines the surface film which transmits the flux from the subpoles to the gap features contained in the surface film. This resulting structure is a recording head that is wired to the servo system electronics and will format the tape with the arbitrary gap pattern.