Patent ID: 6995958

Claim:
A method for preventing electrostatic discharge (ESD) damage during the head-suspension assembly (HSA) construction process, comprising: providing a plurality of sliders, each slider having a conductive substrate, and an equal number of GMR magnetic recording heads, each said GMR magnetic recording head comprising: a conductive substrate; an electrically conductive under shield formed on the substrate, said under shield being in electrical contact with the substrate; a first insulating layer formed on the under shield; a GMR sensor element formed on said first insulating layer; conducting lead layers formed electrically contacting said sensor element; a second insulating layer formed over said sensor element and said conducting lead layer; an electrically conducting upper shield formed on said second insulating layer, said electrically conducting upper shield being electrically connected to the sensor element and to said undershield through a balanced half bridge, whereby the balanced half bridge produces substantially equal resistances between said leads and said conductive substrate; and a plurality of terminals for making connections to said GMR magnetic recording head; attaching each slider to one end of a conductive suspension to form, thereby, a plurality of head-gimbals assemblies (HGA's), there being also attached to each said suspension a conductive circuit, said circuit comprising a plurality of conducting traces insulated from said suspension and said circuit having a first end with a plurality of connective terminals facing the slider and a second end with a plurality of connective terminals facing an end of the suspension opposite to the end on which the slider is attached; connecting the terminals on the magnetic recording head formed on each slider mounted on its HGA to the terminals on the first end of the conductive circuit; establishing electrical connection between said conductive slider substrate and said conductive suspension on each of said head-gimbals assemblies (HGA's); attaching each of said plurality of HGA's to a conductive rigid frame, said conductive rigid frame having a signal processing circuit, to form, thereby, a head-suspension assembly (HSA), all said suspensions on said HSA being electrically connected to said conductive rigid frame; connecting said second end of all said conductive circuits to said signal processing unit; connecting said conductive rigid frame to a ground potential; connecting all external conductive surfaces which electrically contact said suspensions to said ground potential.