Electroplating of high damping material for trailing shield in a perpendicular magnetic recording writer

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12437778-B2
Application number	US-202418625025-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 2, 2024
Priority date	Apr 11, 2023
Publication date	Oct 7, 2025
Grant date	Oct 7, 2025

Abstract

The present embodiments relate to a PMR write head with a trailing shield that comprises a FeCoNiM composition. The FeCoNiM composition can be formed via an electroplating process by adding Fe 2+ , Co 2+ , Ni 2+ and a transition metal salt to an aqueous solution comprised of other additives in an electroplating cell that has an Ni or Co as the anode. The plated HD magnetic material as the trailing shield in a PMR writer can minimize a wide area track erasure (WATE). Further, a high moment high damping shield can lower bit error rate (BER) and increase aerial density capability (ADC) of the write head.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
disposing a side shield around a main pole for a write head; and
forming a trailing shield that comprises an iron (Fe)-cobalt (Co)-nickel (Ni)-metal (M) (FeCoNiM) composition that is adjacent to the main pole by:
adding Fe 2+ , Co 2+ , Ni 2+ and a transition metal salt to an aqueous solution; and
applying a pulse to the aqueous solution according to a pulse waveform.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the pulse waveform comprises a forward plating peak current density (I fp ) from 10 to 50 mA/cm 2 , a forward plating peak time between 3 to 100 ms, a reverse plating peak current density (I rp ) from 0 to 15 mA/cm 2 , and/or a reverse plating peak time between 0 to 100 ms to form the FeCoNiM composition.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the trailing shield composition is comprised of the following formula:
Fe w Co x Ni y M z ,
wherein: Fe is iron, Co is cobalt, Ni is nickel and M is metal;
w, x, y and z are the concentrations of Fe, Co, Ni and M, respectively, in atomic percent (%);
M is comprised of a 3d, 4d, and 5d transition metal;
w is between 15 to 70, x is equal to or less than 10, y is between 20 to 70 and z is between 2 to 10, and w+x+y+z=100.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the trailing shield is disposed on the main pole via electroplating the trailing shield using a mask.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein electroplating the trailing shield using the mask includes adding a ferrous iron (Fe 2+ ), cobalt 2+ (Co 2+ ), nickel 2+ (Ni 2+ ) and the transition metal salt to the aqueous solution comprised of one or more additives in an electroplating cell that has an Ni or Co as an anode.

6. A method for disposing a trailing shield on a main pole of a write head, the method comprising:
adding a ferrous iron (Fe 2+ ), cobalt 2+ (Co 2+ ), nickel 2+ (Ni 2+ ) and a transition metal salt (M) to an aqueous solution to form an FeCoNIM composition; and
disposing the trailing shield including the FeCoNiM composition over the main pole of the PMR write head by applying a pulse to the aqueous solution according to a pulse waveform.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the aqueous solution is comprised of one or more additives in an electroplating cell that has an Ni or Co as an anode, and plating to form an iron (Fe) cobalt (Ce) nickel (Ni) metal (M) the FeCoNiM composition.

8. The method of claim 6 , wherein the pulse waveform comprises a forward plating peak current density (I fp ) from 10 to 50 mA/cm 2 , a forward plating peak time between 3 to 100 ms, a reverse plating peak current density (I rp ) from 0 to 15 mA/cm 2 , and/or a reverse plating peak time between 0 to 100 ms to form the FeCoNiM composition.

9. The method of claim 6 , wherein the aqueous solution comprises chemical constituents comprising any of: FeSO 4 ·7H 2 O with a concentration of between 5-30 grams/liter, NiSO 4 ·6H 2 O with a concentration of between 10-50 grams/liter, NiCl 2 ·6H 2 O with a concentration of between 10-50 grams/liter, CoSO 4 ·7H 2 O with a concentration of equal to or less than 20 grams/liter, H 3 BO 3 with a concentration of between 20-30 grams/liter, Saccharin Na with a concentration of equal to or less than 2 grams/liter, Sodium lauryl sulfate with a concentration of between 0.01-0.2 grams/liter, and Ammonium Perrhenate with a concentration of between 0.04-1.5 grams/liter.

10. The method of claim 6 , wherein the trailing shield composition is comprised of the following formula:
Fe w Co x Ni y M z ,
wherein:
w, x, y and z are the concentrations of Fe, Co, Ni and M, respectively, in atomic percent (%);
M is comprised of a 3d, 4d, and 5d transition metal;
w is between 15 to 70, x equal to or less than 10, y is between 20 to 70 and z is between 2 to 10, and w+x+y+z=100.

11. The method of claim 6 , wherein a temperature of the aqueous solution is between 10-30 degrees Celsius, and a pH level is between 2-4.

12. A method of forming a trailing shield used in a write head, the method comprising:
adding Fe 2+ , Co 2+ , Ni 2+ and a transition metal salt to an aqueous solution; and
applying a pulse to the aqueous solution according to a pulse waveform to form the trailing shield, wherein a composition of the trailing shield comprises Fe w Co x Ni y M z ,
wherein: Fe is iron, Co is cobalt, Ni is nickel and M is metal;
w, x, y and z are the concentrations of Fe, Co, Ni and M, respectively, in the composition and are in atomic percent (%);
M is comprised of a 3d, 4d, and 5d transition metal;
w is between 15 to 70, x is equal to or less than 10, y is between 20 to 70 and z is between 2 to 10, and w+x+y+z=100.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the pulse waveform comprises a forward plating peak current density (I fp ) from 10 to 50 mA/cm 2 , a forward plating peak time between 3 to 100 ms, a reverse plating peak current density (I rp ) from 0 to 15 mA/cm 2 , and/or a reverse plating peak time between 0 to 100 ms to form the FeCoNiM composition.

14. The method of claim 12 , wherein the trailing shield is disposed on a main pole via electroplating the trailing shield using a mask.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein electroplating the trailing shield using the mask includes adding a ferrous iron (Fe 2+ ), cobalt 2+ (Co 2+ ), nickel 2+ (Ni 2+ ) and the transition metal salt to the aqueous solution comprised of one or more additives in an electroplating cell that has an Ni or Co as an anode.

16. The method of claim 12 , wherein the aqueous solution is comprised of one or more additives in an electroplating cell that has an Ni or Co as an anode, and plating to form the FeCoNiM composition.

17. The method of claim 12 , wherein the aqueous solution comprises chemical constituents comprising any of: FeSO 4 ·7H 2 O with a concentration of between 5-30 grams/liter, NiSO 4 ·6H 2 O with a concentration of between 10-50 grams/liter, NiCl 2 ·6H 2 O with a concentration of between 10-50 grams/liter, CoSO 4 ·7H 2 O with a concentration of equal to or less than 20 grams/liter, H 3 BO 3 with a concentration of between 20-30 grams/liter, Saccharin Na with a concentration of equal to or less than 2 grams/liter, Sodium lauryl sulfate with a concentration of between 0.01-0.2 grams/liter, and Ammonium Perrhenate with a concentration of between 0.04-1.5 grams/liter.

18. The method of claim 12 , wherein a temperature of the aqueous solution is between 10-30 degrees Celsius, and a pH level is between 2-4.

Assignees

• Headway Tech Inc

Inventors

• Liu Xiaomin
• Chen Wenjie
• Liu Yue
• Xu Weihao
• Tang Yuhui
• Li Feiyue

Classifications

• Y10T29/49043

  Depositing magnetic layer or coating · CPC title

• G11B5/3163

  Fabrication methods or processes specially adapted for a particular head structure, e.g. using base layers for electroplating, using functional layers for masking, using energy or particle beams for shaping the structure or modifying the properties of the basic layers · CPC title

• G11B5/11

  Shielding of head against electric or magnetic fields · CPC title

• G11B5/315

  Shield layers on both sides of the main pole, e.g. in perpendicular magnetic heads · CPC title

• G11B5/1278

  specially adapted for magnetisations perpendicular to the surface of the record carrier · CPC title