Development of hard carbon coatings for thin-film tape heads

Major problems in thin-film recording heads are pole tip/gap recession in the inductive head and scratching/smearing, electrical short, electrostatic charge build up, and corrosion of the MR stripe in the MR heads. Wear of head structure can be minimized by depositing a hard carbon coating over the entire ABS including the head structure. In this study, we have deposited carbon coatings on Ni-Zn ferrite and Al/sub 2/O/sub 3/-TiC substrates and dummy heads by various deposition techniques and characterized for mechanical and tribological properties. Ion beam carbon coatings on Ni-Zn ferrite and cathodic arc carbon coatings on Al/sub 2/O/sub 3/-TiC heads exhibit most wear resistance compared to other coatings in a tape drive test.