US 6,982,042 B2
Ion bombardment of electrical lapping guides to decrease noise during lapping process
Mark A. Church, Los Gatos, Calif. (US); Wipul Pemsiri Jayasekara, San Jose, Calif. (US); and Howard Gordon Zolla, San Jose, Calif. (US)
Assigned to Hitachi Global Storage Technologies Netherlands, B.V., Amsterdam (Netherlands)
Filed on Feb. 28, 2003, as Appl. No. 10/377,854.
Prior Publication US 2004/0180608 A1, Sep. 16, 2004
Int. Cl. G11B 11/39 (2006.01)
U.S. Cl. 216—22 25 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method for lapping a magnetoresistive device, comprising:
masking selected portions of a magnetoresistive device wafer thereby defining masked and unmasked regions of the wafer, the unmasked regions including lapping guides;
bombarding the wafer with ions such that a magnetoresistive effect of the unmasked regions is reduced;
lapping at least a section of the wafer; and
using the lapping guides to measure an extent of the lapping,
wherein the lapping guides have a defined track width prior to the bombardment.