Patent ID: 8409453

Claim:
A method for fabricating a magnetic recording transducer having a main pole on an underlayer, a nonmagnetic gap covering the main pole, and a field region distal from the main pole and separated from the main pole by a first portion of the underlayer, a portion of the nonmagnetic gap residing on the top of the main pole, the method comprising: providing a patterned seed layer, a thin portion of the patterned seed layer having a first thickness, a thick portion of the patterned seed layer having a second thickness greater than the first thickness and being separated from the main pole by a second portion of the underlayer, at least part of the thick portion of the patterned seed layer residing on a portion of the field region; providing a wrap-around shield on the patterned seed layer, at least part of the thin portion of the patterned seed layer residing in proximity to and exposed by the wrap-around shield; and field etching the field region distal from the wrap-around shield.