Electroplated CoNiFe alloy for use in an integrated inductive

magnetoresistive recording head

FL Chesnutt
Rocky Mountain Magnetics, Louisvili~, Colomdo 80028
An electrodcposition formula and operating conditions were developed and optimized for the
high sduration magnetization CosONi,,FetO alloy. The effects of magnetic field application
during deposition and in subsequent process operations was investigated. The bulk film magnetic
performance was compared to conventional Permalloy. Identical write heads, designed for a 300
Mbit/in. operating point, were fabricated and tested for a direct comparison of conventional
NiFe and CoNiFe. The yoke thickness of the CoNiFe heads was scaled linearly by the difference
in saturation moment. Overwrite performance on high coercivity media demonstrated that the
CoNiFe heads performance was equivalent to the thicker NiFe heads. Heads fabricated with
yokes deposit& in an ort.hogonal switching field, annealed with no applied field, exhibited
reduced WL. .. in the bulk film measurement and reduced saturation write currents. The addition
of boron to the alloy reduced coercivity.

I. INTRODUCTION magnetization available in a near zero magnetostriction

A manufacturable integrated inductive/magneto-
resistance (MB) head design for high-density recording
applications requires the write yoke material to provide
good overwrite characteristics on high coercivity media.
This performance must be attained at relatively long throat
heights. The lapping target will usually be controlled by
the more sensitive read element and read to write misalign-
ment must be compensated.
Employing conventional Permalloy in this application
would require thick yoke and pole tip structures in many
cases exceeding 4 pm. These thick yokes imply compro-
mised track width control, increased device topology, and
reduced productivity. In a shared pole-shield-type design,
the thicker bottom pole contributes to increased read-to-
write gap spacing important in rotary actuator applica-
tions.
The task of material selection involves more than just
material properties; the issue of product cost must be fac-
tored into the decision process. Several recent publications
have described the promising material propert.ies of several
vacuum deposited alloys such as FeN, CoFeN,
CoFeBSiO,, CoZrKe, and others. In many cases, produc-
tion implementation of one of these materials would re-
quire the replacement of a plating process with a vacuum
system at considerable capital cost. In addition, a new
method of track-width definition must accompany the
change. Wet etching the critical track-width dimension
would be difficult and pole tip trimming would require the
investment in another vacuum system.
The method of electrodeposition through a window
frame of photoresist is the preferred solution to fabricate
the yoke structure when product cost is a consideration.
This low capital cost technique has been proven in the
production of thin-film heads for over 10 years.
The objective of this work was to define a manufactur-
able material and process capable of very high aerial den-
sity performance ( > 300 Mbit/in2) at minimal impact to
product cost. CoNiFe was chosen due to its high saturation
alloy that can be electrodeposited in current production
equipment.
Il. EXPERIMENTAL DETAILS
A. Film electrodeposition
Both the NiFe and CoNiFe films were deposited in
identical reciprocating paddle plating cells. The NiFe cell
contains a Ni anode and a permanent magnet orienting
field. The CoNiFe cell contains a Co anode and employs a
helmholtz coil assembly for producing the conventional
easy axis field, and is capable of orthogonal switching at
frequencies of l-10 Hz. In all cases the films are deposited
on a NiFe seed layer 1000 A thick.
The CoNiFe bath formulation was designed to deliver
uniformity of composition over device topologies common
to thin-film heads at reasonable deposition rates. Chemis-
try optimization work was performed in a hull cell. To
evaluate the bath formulation and operating conditions
complete head structures were prepared and cross sec-
tioned for compositional analysis. In addition, an experi-
ment was performed to determine the effect of current den-
sity and paddle velocity on tilm composition.
Bulk films were prepared in an easy axis field and mag-
netic measurements determined using a BH loop system.
Compositional analysis was performed using a SEM/EDX
system.
CoNiFe Urns were prepared in an orthogonal switch-
ing magnetic tield of 50 Oe. An optimization experiment
TABLE I. Device characteristics for overwrite comparisons.
Material NiFe CoNiFe
Pole thickness (pm) 4.0 2.5
Coil number 8 8
Throat height (pm) 3.0 3.0
Gap thickness (pm) OS 0.5
Pole widths (pm) b/X 517s

6223 J. Appl. Phys. 73 (IO), 15 May 1993 0021-8979/93/l 06223-03$06.00 0 1993 American Institute of Physics 6223

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TABLE II. Bulk film material properties. Nicks1 nnd Iron wt% \,s Current Density
,6 , ~~- Corm*BOW ............l..ll
~-~ -___-. ._ll..
II................
...
Material NiFe CoNiFe CoNiFeB
I.3 - %\
M, (G) 9700 15 000 15 000
H.@(OS) 0.5 1.5 0.6 \
H,c fOeI 4 I4 ,; ..
14 \
*-==N
Y ti -
3 -=--yi$<:f
/-&+s+- ----cI
.p<--
was performed by varying the field duty cycle and fre- 10 - / _.,.3--
/,/
quency. / ./
,/-,A
It has been shown that the addition of boron can im- ,/;:
,.-
& :.--
prove corrosion resistance of NiFe films. The relationship CT
fi ..i--. A .-____....................... 1........................................................A ...I
between dimethylamine boraine concentration in the bath 5 7 tt 15
and film magnetic properties was evaluated. u Iri d I <ycle,set +
cutre,,t oemt* ,uvi,il
Ni at 5 ;yqne< ;\ Ti.,, 1 .y,.<:se.: b rent 51!p..:ir.i:

B. Head fabrication and testing

Thin-film write heads were fabricated using a simple 8
turn coil and single thic.kness yoke structures. The NiFe
head yokes were deposited to a thickness of 4.0 pm, the
CoNiFe yoke thickness was scaled down by the saturation
moment to 2.5 pm. Vacuum baking of the conductor in-
sulation layers for the NiFe devices was performed in a
permanent magnet easy axis field of 200 Oe, the CoNiFe
films were baked with no applied field. All device types
were lapped to relatively long throat heights ranging from
2 to 3 pm. Basic device characteristics are shown in
Table I.
All the representative heads were fly height tested
prior to magnetic performance testing. Each head was
flown at 100 nm on KOMAG 1500 Oe, 2.0 MrT. media.
The overwrite test was performed by writing with the in-
ductive head and reading with a standard MR head at
frequencies up to 75 K BPI.
Ill. RESULTS
Bulk film properties are shown in Table II. The
CoNiFe films show bulk saturation magnetization values
50% greater than conventional Permailoy at the expense of
greater Hti In the integrated MR head the greater Hk is
FIG. 2. The effect of current density and paddle velocity on deposited
fihn compositioe, wt % of Ni and Fe, the balance Co.
believed not to effect the write function. The addition of a
small amount of boron to the film reduced easy axis coer-
c.ivity significantly (see Fig. 1).
The relationship between deposited film composition,
current density, and paddle agitation velocity is shown in
Fig. 2. A plateau exists at approximately 15 Ma/cm:. The
deposition rate at this operating point exceeds 2000 A/min
and is insensitive to paddle velocity.
To confirm that a film of uniform composition is de-
posited in the actual device, topology cross sections were
prepared and compositional analysis performed. The vari-
ation in nicke1 and iron composition measured at six loca-
tions around the top yoke layer was found to be less than
0.4%.
A matrix of films were prepared where an orthogonal
switching field was applied during deposition similar to
Patent No. 4780781. Figure 3 shows the results of the
switching frequency and duty cycle on the bulk film Hk It
was confirmed that using this technique would reduce El,
by 50% and still maintain a well-defined easy axis as long
as the preferred axis duty cycle was at least 55%o, films

Hc vs DMAB cmc in BAlH

-2 C,,WrB Illl/~,3.3muvn
.-_____ - -..............................
- Hk vs ALTERNATING FIELD CONDITIONS
IO
18. I---
17
t.b
ia 9,.i 15- -p
t
14 1
t3-
,..,\
Y..., 12 . ..&I.
b)
12
11 ...\ II ,-;A
I
:
1-
0.2
...
..,
L
p I
10:;
> cl.&%- -&-.
-----% 9-
2 Ol-
on
0.3 -
------B
/AA
L.4
Li.3-
:I /
L!z -
0,
,, t ---_ L .--- ---- .__.____..___ I._.-...
+
51 1 1 I.-LJ..-.L.-L-- I 1 I I I I I 4 I t I
i? n.i "2 0.3 55 57 59 6, 63 65 87 bP 71 13 25
g/L OliF3in mt* FIELDo!Jw cm.E x A
D I H* + 5 H: D 1 HZ
FIG. 1. Change in easy axis coercivity as DMAB concentration in the
plating bath is increased. FIG. 3. Deposited film Hk at varied duty cycles and frequencies.

6224 J. Appl. Phys., Vol. 73, No. IO, 15 May 1993 R. Chesnuft 6224

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 Wrltc C;urrent vs over Write value similar to films deposited in a dc field ( 12-14 Oe).
30 -___I ..-- - 15mCL,2.0l&T.4 Uny hdght
._...ll__l_. -.~ _ _ ~
Subsequent testing showed that the reduced Hk value could
I 1 be retained if the orienting field was removed from the
photoresist bake process.
An operating point for magnetic performance testing
of the heads was chosen that would represent over 300
Mbits/in.2 recording density. NiFe and CoNiFe heads
were tested at a write current optimized for each head type.
The CoNiFe heads averaged greater than 35 dB overwrite,
slightly better than conventional NiFe heads, at a pole
thickness reduced by 40%. A plot of overwrite versus write
current is shown in Fig. 4.
c -I.... L- -,- -L.. I I. 1
:I3 25 .ti3 15 4@ 46 50 55 60
w;:te Curcant In cl+
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
0 tn!ws + Pcrmolln,
I would like to thank K. Greenwell and T. Noonan for
support in performance evaluation of the heads, J. Sch-
FIG. 4. C)vrrwrite vs write current comparison of heads fabricated with wenn and G. Ruse for analytical and device characteriza-
CobWe vs cunventional pennalloy. tion support, and B. Rich for electroplating cell modifica-
tions.
deposited at duty cycles appsoaching 50/50 were isotropic. S. Wang and M. Kryder, J. Appl. Phys. 67, 5134 ( 1990).
Films prepared in this manner were then subjected to the H. Iwasaki, J. Appl. Phys. 67, SI?O (1990).
H. Matsuyama, H. Eguchi, and M. Karamon, J. Appl. Phys. 67, 5123
photoresist bake ovens containing a 200 Oe dc field and i 1990).
temperatures reaching 265 C. Magnetic measurement af- J. Guzman and M. Kryder, J. Appl, Phys. 61, 3240 (1987).
ter this treatment revealed that the film Hk returned to a 5 M. Blakedee, U.S. Patent 4440609.

6225 J. Appl. Phys., Vol. 73, No. 10, 15 May 1993 R. Chesnutt 6225

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