Abstract: Method and apparatus for texturing a substrate for use in a magnetic recording disc. A texturing pad used in the invention has inner and outer coaxial regions, with the outer region being more compressible. When the pad and a substrate are rotated about parallel, offset axes, and pressed against one another in the presence of a particle slurry, the inner, less compressible region of the pad produces a deeper-groove texturing on an inner annular surface region of the disc.

Abstract: A method of producing a thin-film magnetic disk having high coercivity and magnetic remanence, good loop squareness, and low fluctuation in peak-to-peak recording signal amplitude over an entire circular recording path. The novel aspects of the method which contribute to the performance characteristics of the disk are (a) layering a 300-1,000 .ANG. magnetic film containing between about 70-88% cobalt, 10-28% nickel, and 2-12% chromium over a 1,000-4,000 .ANG. chromium underlayer; (b) forming the film and underlayer under sputtering disposition conditions which prevent low-angle asymmetrical sputtering; and (c) shielding the disk substrate during sputtering in a manner which produces substantially uniform-thickness deposition.

Abstract: A rapid-load system for loading a series of pallets into a sputtering apparatus. The system comprises a magazine having a plurality of vertically spaced pallet supports whose spacing is sufficient to allow insertion of a pallet into the magazine directly without contact between the pallet and magazine. The magazine is removably supported in a load-in chamber of the sputtering apparatus by a chamber track assembly.

Abstract: A baffle for use in achieving a substantially isotropic grain structure in a crystalline layer which is sputtered onto a substrate by moving the substrate linearly, and without rotation, in a front-to-back direction below a sputtering target. The baffle has front and back shields which are adapted to limit deposition of sputtered material onto the moving substrate substantially to substrate regions which directly underlie the target. A pair of strips in the baffle are constructed to effect substantially symmetrical sputtering of material onto the substrate surface from opposite target side directions, to produce an isotropic crystal structure during early phases of film deposition.