Investigation of ESD Prevention for Deshunted GMR Heads

The electrostatic discharge (ESD) effect in GMR heads in the deshunting process is studied in order to prevent the damage in this process. The simulation and experiment results are investigated and compared. It is found from these results that sequences of deshunting process, currently operating, can cause the damage of GMR heads due to the ESD effect, based on the charged device model, CDM. This also shows that the voltage across GMR head, as the tweezers is used, can be raised up to ∼3.7 V which is about harmful to damage the head. Examples of damage heads confirmed by the SEM are also shown. key words: electrostatic discharge, deshunting, recording head