Alps Electric Co., Ltd.

Tdk Corporation

Kota Asatsuma

Fumihito Koike

Naoya Hasegawa

Masamichi Saito

Yosuke Ide

Kenichi Tanaka

Eiji Umetsu

Yoshihiro Nishiyama

Shinji Sugihara

Hidekazu Kobayashi

Ryo Nakabayashi

Kazumasa Nishimura

Hideto Ando

Kazuaki Ikarashi

Akio Hanada

Norimasa Okanishi

A magnetic sensor having no sensitivity differences between sensitivity axes, and an easy manufacturing method therefor are provided. The method includes a process of forming first stacked films for a magnetoresistive element on a substrate. This element has a sensitivity axis in a certain direction and includes a self-pinned ferromagnetic pinned layer in which first and second ferromagnetic films are antiferromagnetically coupled through an antiparallel coupling layer, a nonmagnetic intermediate layer, and a soft magnetic free layer. The method further includes a process of removing a region of the first stacked films from the substrate. The remaining region of the films includes at least a region to be left to form the element. The method furthermore includes a process of forming second stacked films for a magnetoresistive element, which has a sensitivity axis in a direction different from the certain direction and has the same structure, on the exposed substrate.

Method for manufacturing a magnetic sensor

A magnetic detecting element includes a laminated structure where a fixed magnetic layer and a free magnetic layer are laminated through a non-magnetic material layer, wherein the fixed magnetic layer is a self-pinned type where a first magnetic layer and a second magnetic layer are laminated through a non-magnetic intermediate layer and the first magnetic layer and the second magnetic layer are antiparallelly magnetization-fixed, and the second magnetic layer is in contact with the non-magnetic material layer. The first magnetic layer is formed using FeCo serving as a material having a higher coercive force than the second magnetic layer. The film thickness of the first magnetic layer falls within a range greater than or equal to 10 &#x212b; and less than or equal to 17 &#x212b;, and is thinner than the film thickness of the second magnetic layer. The non-magnetic intermediate layer is formed using Rh.

Magnetic detecting element and magnetic sensor utilizing same

An underlying layer is composed of Co&#x2014;Fe&#x2014;B that is an amorphous magnetic material. Thus, the upper surface of the underlying layer can be taken as a lower shield layer-side reference position for obtaining a gap length (GL) between upper and lower shields, resulting in a narrower gap than before. In addition, since the underlying layer has an amorphous structure, the underlying layer does not adversely affect the crystalline orientation of individual layers to be formed thereon, and the surface of the underlying layer has good planarizability. Accordingly, PW50 (half-amplitude pulse width) and SN ratio can be improved more than before without causing a decrease in rate of change in resistance (&#x394; R/R) or the like, thereby achieving a structure suitable for increasing recording density.

Magnetic sensing element and method for manufacturing the same

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Tokyo, Japan

Kota Asatsuma