Newly developed wraparound-shielded head for perpendicular recording

Abstract

We describe a fabrication process for a wraparound shield for perpendicular recording heads. We successfully made a wraparound shield on a main pole using this process. A wraparound-shielded head improved the resolution, and the byte error rate is lower compared to a single-pole head because the wraparound shield increased the gradient of the magnetic field from the main pole. Measurements in the cross-track direction showed that the wraparound shield improved the magnetic field profile at near the bottom of the profile.