Silicon nitride/tetrahedral amorphous carbon bilayer overcoat for exceptional wear life of functional tape heads

In this study, we developed a novel bilayer overcoat on a functional tape head which exhibits long-term wear durability with commercial tape in an actual tape drive environment. The overcoat used in this work is a ~ 20 nm bilayer overcoat structure comprising a composite interlayer of amorphous silicon/silicon nitride (Si/SiN
_x
) after bombardment with high energy C
⁺
ions, followed by a ta-C layer deposited atop .