A disk drive assembly in which the suspension and read/write transducer are integrated into a combination assembly and fabricated using thin film deposition techniques thereby producing an assembly which is very low in mass permitting contact recording. In one embodiment, transducers are deposited in a row and column configuration onto a release and support layer covering a wafer substrate having a thickness equal to a desired suspension length. The wafer is separated into a plurality of row sections, with each row section providing one thin film transducer from each column. A second release layer is formed on a separated side on the row section and thin layers of suitable materials are deposited to form a suspension layer including conductive lines extending to the thin film transducers. The first and second release layers are dissolved and the row section is further cut to form the individual combination assemblies. In a second embodiment, the wafer substrate has a thickness equal to the width of the suspension. The transducers deposited on a row are separated by the desired suspension length to produce combination assemblies useful for linear disk drive actuators. The excess portion of the wafer substrate can alternatively be removed by cutting or etching eliminating the requirement for release or support layers.