Patent ID: 8137570

Claim:
A method for manufacturing a magnetic write head comprising: providing a substrate; depositing a magnetic write pole material over the substrate; depositing mask structure over the write pole material the mask including a hard mask contacting the magnetic write pole material and additional mask layers formed over the hard mask; performing a first ion milling to remove portions of the magnetic write pole material that are not protected by the mask structure to form a magnetic write pole having first and second sides; after performing the first ion milling, removing the additional mask layers, leaving the hard mask intact; after removing the portion of the hard mask structure formed over the hard mask, depositing a non-magnetic side gap material; after depositing the non-magnetic side gap material, performing a second ion milling sufficiently to form the non-magnetic side gap material into first and second non-magnetic sides walls, formed at the first and second sides of the write pole, each of the first and second non-magnetic side walls having an outer edge opposite the write pole, the second ion milling being performed sufficiently to form a recess in the substrate, the recess initiating at the outer edge of each of the first and second non-magnetic side gaps; depositing a fill layer; performing a chemical mechanical polishing sufficiently to expose the hard mask; removing the fill layer; performing a reactive ion etching to remove the hard mask depositing a non-magnetic, electrically conductive seed layer; and electroplating a magnetic material over the non-magnetic, electrically conductive seed layer to form a trailing, wrap-around magnetic shield.