Patent ID: 7607214

Claim:
A method for manufacturing sliders for magnetic recording, the method comprising: providing a Si wafer oriented such that at least one (111) plane is perpendicular to a surface of the wafer; forming a plurality of read/write heads on the wafer, the read/write heads being arranged in a pattern defining at least two rows on the wafer and the rows being aligned parallel to a vertical (111) plane of the Si wafer, the formation of the read/write head further comprising, depositing read/write head materials and forming a RIE mask over the read write materials, the RIE mask being configured with a first shape to define at least one edge of the read write head, then performing reactive ion etching (RIE) to define the at least one edge of the read/write head; forming a KOH etch mask on the wafer, the KOH etch mask being configured with a second shape that is configured to define an opening between at least two rows of sliders; and exposing the wafer to an anisotropic etchant for Si.