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:
Oct. 23, 2001
Filed:
May. 17, 2000
Serhat Metin, San Jose, CA (US);
Mustafa Pinarbasi, Morgan Hill, CA (US);
Patrick Rush Webb, San Jose, CA (US);
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);
Abstract
A method constructs first and second seed layers of a seed layer structure in-situ for a top spin valve sensor for increasing magnetoresistive coefficient dr/R of the sensor, reducing a ferromagnetic coupling field H,between pinned and free layers of the sensor and reducing coercivity H,of the free layer. The first layer, which is aluminum oxide (Al,O,), is ion beam sputter deposited on a first shield layer in a sputtering chamber under a specified pressure. The second seed layer, which is nickel oxide based, is deposited on the first seed layer by ion beam sputter deposition without breaking the vacuum of the chamber. The free layer is then directly deposited on the second seed layer followed by formation of the remainder of the layers of the spin valve sensor. In one embodiment of the invention a read gap layer and the first seed layer are located between a first shield layer and the second seed layer while in the second embodiment of the invention the first seed layer is the only layer between the first shield layer and the second seed layer.