ESD damage and solutions in tape head manufacturing

Magnetic tape heads use a multiplicity of highly ESD sensitive read sensors. With 36 or more sensors per head in a magnetic storage tape drive, a loss in a manufacturing environment of 1000 ppm per sensor is very costly. ESD damages caused by manufacturing processes, fixtures, material and faulty testers are investigated and reviewed. A new type of ESD failure is revealed in the study. Solutions are suggested to improve and amend the observed problems.