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.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jan. 12, 1999
Filed:
Oct. 09, 1997
David Darden Chambliss, Katonah, NY (US);
Robin Frederick Farrow, San Jose, CA (US);
Ronald Franklin Marks, San Jose, CA (US);
Eric Dean Tober, San Jose, CA (US);
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);
Abstract
A method for forming a magnetoresistive sensor results in the spontaneous formation or 'self-assembly' of a giant magnetoresistance multilayer structure of alternating stripes of ferromagnetic and nonferromagnetic metal that are stacked laterally on a special template layer. The template layer is a crystalline structure that has a two-fold uniaxial surface, i.e., one that is structurally invariant for a rotation by 180 degrees (and only 180 degrees) about an axis (the symmetry axis) perpendicular to the surface plane. Such a template layer is the (110) surface plane of body-centered-cubic Mo. The alternating stripes of ferromagnetic metal (such as Co or Fe) and nonferromagnetic metal (such as Ag) become spontaneously arranged laterally on the template layer during co-deposition, such as during ultrahigh vaccum evaporation, and are aligned so that the direction of compostion modulation, i.e., the direction perpendicular to the alternating stripes is along one of the unique axes of the template layer and in a plane parallel to the template layer. A crystalline base layer may be used beneath the template layer to enhance the growth of the template layer. If the template layer is (110) Mo, then the base layer may be sapphire having its (112 bar 0) plane parallel to the (110) Mo plane.