The requirement that a magneto-resistive(MR) head dissipate the heat produced by a resistive heating in the sensing element without excessive temperature rise is one of the factors limiting the electric current density in the head [1]. This, in turn, limits the signal to noise ratio attainable for a particular head design. Moreover, unreleased local heating will deteriorate high sensitive MR head unless a careful thermal management is included in the design process. The purpose of this investigation is to determine thermal conductivity of heat dissipation material AlN using a new technique, which has been demonstrated to be useful for measuring thermal conductivity coefficient for a variety of insulator thin film layers. In this experiment AlN material was shown to have a better heat d...[ Read more ]

The requirement that a magneto-resistive(MR) head dissipate the heat produced by a resistive heating in the sensing element without excessive temperature rise is one of the factors limiting the electric current density in the head [1]. This, in turn, limits the signal to noise ratio attainable for a particular head design. Moreover, unreleased local heating will deteriorate high sensitive MR head unless a careful thermal management is included in the design process. The purpose of this investigation is to determine thermal conductivity of heat dissipation material AlN using a new technique, which has been demonstrated to be useful for measuring thermal conductivity coefficient for a variety of insulator thin film layers. In this experiment AlN material was shown to have a better heat dissipation performance than that of A1₂O₃ which is currently used in the MR head industry.