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. 15, 2002
Filed:
Sep. 12, 2000
Applicant:
Inventors:
Assignee:
Hitachi, Ltd., Tokyo, JP;
Attorney:
Primary Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
H01L 4/308 ; G01R 3/309 ;
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
H01L 4/308 ; G01R 3/309 ;
Abstract
A magnetic sensor is constructed to be capable of detecting the change of tunnel current due to co-tunneling effect at a high S/N ratio by using a tunneling magneto-resistive element having a first magnetic layer of a soft magnetic material formed on a flat substrate, first and second tunnel barrier layers formed on the first magnetic layer, magnetic particles of a ferromagnetic material provided between the first and second tunnel barrier layers, and a second magnetic layer of a soft magnetic material formed on the second tunnel barrier layer so as to create tunneling junctions.