The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.

The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.

Date of Patent:
Jul. 13, 2021

Filed:

Apr. 08, 2019
Applicant:

International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);

Inventors:

Milad Aria, Morgan Hill, CA (US);

Icko E. T. Iben, Santa Clara, CA (US);

Guillermo F. Paniagua, Milpitas, CA (US);

Attorney:
Primary Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
G11B 5/455 (2006.01); G11B 5/39 (2006.01);
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
G11B 5/455 (2013.01); G11B 5/3909 (2013.01);
Abstract

Embodiments of the present invention provide methods, systems, and computer program products for identifying damaged tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) sensors. In one embodiment, resistances of a TMR sensor are measured upon application of one or both of negative polarity bias current and positive polarity bias current at a plurality of current magnitudes. Resistances of the TMR sensor can then be analyzed with respect to current, voltage, voltage squared, and/or power, including analyses of changes to slopes calculated with these values and hysteresis-induced fluctuations, all of which can be used to detect damage to the TMR sensor. The present invention also describes methods to utilize the measured values of neighbor TMR sensors to distinguish normal versus damaged parts for head elements containing multiple TMR read elements.


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