The advent of commercial grade picosecond and femtosecond lasers has opened the way for laser micromachining
of metals. There has however been no or little work reported on the ceramics. Use of diamond saws is still the
preferred way of cutting the ceramics such as an Al2O3-TiC composite (referred to as N58 hereafter) that is widely
used in the manufacture of read/write heads for magnetic recording hard disk drives. These read/write heads are
commonly referred to as "sliders".
We report here attempts to cut rows of sliders using various lasers. The cut length was 0.85 mm and the thickness
was 0.23 mm. We found that all the nanosecond pulse range lasers, left slag at the laser input edge of the cut and on
the cut wall. In many cases the slag deposit doesn't allow one to cut through the entire thickness as the slag
interferes with successive laser pulses.
Our best results were obtained with picosecond and femtosecond lasers. We were able to cut through entire
thickness of the strip with these lasers. The slag was much less than that from the nanosecond lasers, but not low
enough for our application. There were slag deposits or loose-appearing material on the cut walls also. The
roughness was at best in the micron range.
In all the cases studied the cut quality as measured by cut surface roughness and slag formation as well as the
cutting speed was worst than that obtained from the diamond saws currently used in the industry.
Laser-based technologies have played an important role in manufacturing of hard disk drives. The applications include disk texturing, precision bending of the suspension, precision adjust of the shape of the slider carrying the magnetic read/write head and protection against electrostatic discharge (ESD) in the read/write heads. Disk texturing allows one to reduce slider/disk stiction during contact by producing bumps only a few nanometers high and a few microns in diameter at the landing zone of the disk. Laser bending of the suspension allows one to precisely control gram load, the pre-load force with which the slider is pushed towards the disk, as well as the pitch and roll static attitudes of the slider, which strongly influence its flying characteristics. Laser crown adjust helps control slider flatness to within a few nanometers, with high precision and predictability. These technologies allow one to reduce both the mean and the tolerance of slider/disk spacing, thus effectively enabling higher magnetic recording densities. Laser technology helps to protect the sensitive magnetic read head against electrostatic discharge by allowing one to put an electrical short on the head during most of the part's handling, then removing it using a sharply focussed laser beam during final stages of drive assembly. Laser technology, with its ability to process small areas with precision positioning, being contact free and hence largely contamination free and being able reach areas with optical fibers not easily accessible by mechanical means is ideally suited for these manufacturing processes. In this paper we review the physical mechanisms underlying these technologies and possible future applications of lasers in disk drive manufacturing.
Conference Committee Involvement (5)
Laser-based Micro- and Nanopackaging and Assembly IV
27 January 2010 | San Francisco, California, United States
Laser-based Micro- and Nanopackaging and Assembly III
28 January 2009 | San Jose, California, United States
Laser-Based Micro- and Nano-Packaging and Assembly II
22 January 2008 | San Jose, California, United States
Laser-Based Micro- and Nano-Packaging and Assembly (LBMP-IV)
22 January 2007 | San Jose, California, United States
Laser-Based Micropackaging
25 January 2006 | San Jose, California, United States
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