Patent ID: 7520048

Claim:
A method of fabricating a GMR head comprising: providing a wafer element comprising a plurality of GMR head elements, each of said GMR head elements comprising a pair of magnetic pole-tips and a coil; forming an overcoat layer over said GMR head elements; forming a seed layer on said overcoat layer; forming a mask layer on said seed layer, said mask layer having an opening at a location where a trench is to be formed in said overcoat layer, said opening exposing an exposed section of said seed layer; etching said exposed section of said seed layer through said opening in said mask layer using a wet chemical; directing an ion milling beam into said opening in said mask layer to remove remaining portions of said exposed section of said seed layer; wherein said remaining portions are left on completion of said etching; and etching said overcoat layer through said opening in said mask layer to create a trench in said overcoat layer.