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:
Mar. 23, 2004
Filed:
Sep. 20, 2000
Toshihiko Sato, Kawaguchi, JP;
Shinji Yuasa, Tsukuba, JP;
Other;
Abstract
There is proposed a high-sensitive TMR element wherein the selection of electronic state contributing to tunnel conduction is optimized. In this invention, a junction plane between a ferromagnetic layer ( ) having a bcc structure and a tunnel barrier layer ( ) is constituted by ( ) plane or ( ) plane of the ferromagnetic layer ( ). The tunnel barrier layer ( ) is formed of a thin aluminum oxide film which is formed through two stages, i.e. a first stage wherein an aluminum film having a thickness of 1 nm or less is formed on the surface of a magnetic metal by taking advantage of the excellent wettability of aluminum to the surface of metallic film, the resultant aluminum film being subsequently naturally oxidized or oxidized by oxygen radical; and a second stage wherein an aluminum thin film is formed directly from an aluminum flux in an oxygen atmosphere or an atmosphere of oxygen radical.