Hard disk drive thin film head manufactured using nanoimprint lithography

Daniel Sullivan; Thomas R. Boonstra; Mark T. Kief; Lily H. Youtt; Sethuraman Jayashankar; Carolyn Van Dorn; Harold Gentile; Sriram Viswanathan; Dexin Wang; Dion Song; Dongsung Hong; Sung-Hoon Gee

doi:10.1117/1.JMM.12.3.031105

2 August 2013 Hard disk drive thin film head manufactured using nanoimprint lithography

Daniel Sullivan, Thomas R. Boonstra, Mark T. Kief, Lily H. Youtt, Sethuraman Jayashankar, Carolyn Van Dorn, Harold Gentile, Sriram Viswanathan, Dexin Wang, Dion Song, Dongsung Hong, Sung-Hoon Gee

Author Affiliations +

Journal of Micro/Nanolithography, MEMS, and MOEMS, Vol. 12, Issue 3, 031105 (August 2013). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.JMM.12.3.031105

Abstract

The lithographic requirements for the thin film head (TFH) industry are comparable to the semiconductor industry for certain parameters such as resolution and pattern repeatability. In other aspects such as throughput and defectivity, the requirements tend to be more relaxed. These requirements match well with the strengths and weaknesses reported concerning nanoimprint lithography (NIL) and suggest an alternative approach to optical lithography. We demonstrate the proof of concept of using NIL patterning, in particular Jet and Flash™ Imprint Lithography (J-FIL™) (Imprio, Jet and Flash Imprint Lithography, and J-FIL trademarks are the property of Molecular Imprints, Inc.), to build functional TFH devices with performance comparable to standard wafer processing. An Imprio™ 300 tool from Molecular Imprints, Inc. (MII) was modified to process the AlTiC ceramic wafers commonly used in the TFH industry. Templates were produced using commercially viable photomask manufacturing processes and the AlTiC wafer process flow was successfully modified to support NIL processing. Future work is identified to further improve lithographic performance including residual layer thickness uniformity, wafer topography, NIL→NIL overlay, and development of a large imprint field that exceeds what is available in optical lithography.

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Daniel Sullivan, Thomas R. Boonstra, Mark T. Kief, Lily H. Youtt, Sethuraman Jayashankar, Carolyn Van Dorn, Harold Gentile, Sriram Viswanathan, Dexin Wang, Dion Song, Dongsung Hong, and Sung-Hoon Gee "Hard disk drive thin film head manufactured using nanoimprint lithography," Journal of Micro/Nanolithography, MEMS, and MOEMS 12(3), 031105 (2 August 2013). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.JMM.12.3.031105

Published: 2 August 2013

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