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:
Dec. 02, 2003
Filed:
Feb. 01, 2001
Satoru Araki, Tokyo, JP;
Yoshihiro Tsuchiya, Tokyo, JP;
Masashi Sano, Tokyo, JP;
Takumi Uesugi, Tokyo, JP;
TDK Corporation, Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
Provided are a magnetic transducer having a higher rate of resistance change and a larger magnitude of resistance change and having better stability of properties, and a thin film magnetic head. A stack of an MR element has a stacked structure comprising an underlayer, an antiferromagnetic layer, a ferromagnetic layer, a first nonmagnetic layer, a first soft magnetic layer, a second soft magnetic layer, a second nonmagnetic layer and a high-resistance layer, which are stacked in sequence on the underlayer. The orientation of magnetization of the ferromagnetic layer is fixed by exchange coupling between the ferromagnetic layer and the antiferromagnetic layer. The orientations of magnetizations of the first soft magnetic layer and the second soft magnetic layer change according to an external magnetic field. Electrical resistance of the stack changes according to a relative angle between the orientations of the magnetizations of the first soft magnetic layer and the second soft magnetic layer and the orientation of the magnetization of the ferromagnetic layer. The high-resistance layer has higher electrical resistance than electrical resistance of the second nonmagnetic layer. The second nonmagnetic layer and the high-resistance layer are provided on the side of the second soft magnetic layer opposite to the first nonmagnetic layer. Thus, the rate of resistance change and the magnitude of resistance change can be increased, and furthermore stability of properties can be improved.