Naohisa Matsushita

Laser Micro-Bending for precise micro-fabrication of magnetic disk-drive components

Laser Micro-Bending technology attracts attention as one of the laser processing technology promising from now on. It has the feature that does not contact and does not have the spring back that fabrication in high accuracy can be performed. In our company, Laser Micro-Bending technology development is tackled about ten years before, and the laser bending fabrication technology of a sheet metal and ceramic material has so far been established. It has utilized as rapid prototyping of the sheet metal. But, by re-examination of laser oscillation control etc., it finds out that it is the excellent processing method for manufacture of the high precision mechanism parts for magnetic disk drives. This report explains the technology and machines of the roll and pitch adjustment of a magnetic head suspension, and flatting or crowning of the air bearing surface of a magnetic head slider by using Laser Micro-Bending technology.

Nanopattern transfer from high-density self-assembled nanosphere arrays on prepatterned substrates

We have fabricated nanoimprint moulds with high-density well-defined nanopatterns by pattern transfer from self-assembled nanosphere arrays on prepatterned substrates. Silica nanospheres of 100 and 25 nm diameter were regularly arranged over large areas in a self-assembling manner by capillary force via a dip-coating technique on topographically patterned substrates having 220 nm pitch line/space patterns. The nanosphere arrays were used as etching masks, and nanodot arrays with the same arrangements were created on the silica substrate surfaces by reactive ion etching (RIE). By developing a combined pattern transfer process using Ru and SiO(x) mask layers and CF4 and O2 RIE, the aspect ratio between the height and diameter of the nanodots made from the 25 nm nanospheres is improved to about two. It is demonstrated that the nanopatterns of the moulds can be inversely transferred into polymer surfaces reproducibly by UV nanoimprint process.