Patent ID: 8715515

Claim:
A method for patterning a hard disk in a system having successive processing chambers in vacuum environment where each processing chamber is isolated by an isolation valve, the hard disk having a magnetic stack formed over a substrate, a layer of hard mask formed over the magnetic stack, and a layer of patterned photoresist formed over the layer of hard mask, wherein the photoresist is patterned to define individual islands having a first duty cycle, the method comprising: loading the hard disk onto a disk carrier and transporting the disk carrier in a vacuum environment and into a reactive etch chamber; processing the hard disk in the reactive etch chamber by striking plasma of reactive gas so as to transfer an increased duty cycle pattern from the patterned photoresist onto the layer of hard mask by adjusting conditions of the reactive etch chamber to etch the hard mask to define individual islands having a second duty cycle higher than the first duty cycle; opening the isolation valve of the reactive etch chamber and removing the disk carrier from the reactive etch chamber and transporting the disk carrier into a sputtering etch chamber; processing the hard disk in the sputtering etch chamber by striking plasma of inactive gas so as to transfer the pattern from patterned layer of the hard mask onto the layer of magnetic stack.