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:
May. 01, 2012
Filed:
Dec. 17, 2010
Thomas Dudley Boone, Jr., San Jose, CA (US);
Liesl Folks, Campbell, CA (US);
Bruce Alvin Gurney, San Rafael, CA (US);
Jordan Asher Katine, Mountain View, CA (US);
Ernesto E. Marinero, Saratoga, CA (US);
Neil Smith, San Jose, CA (US);
Thomas Dudley Boone, Jr., San Jose, CA (US);
Liesl Folks, Campbell, CA (US);
Bruce Alvin Gurney, San Rafael, CA (US);
Jordan Asher Katine, Mountain View, CA (US);
Ernesto E. Marinero, Saratoga, CA (US);
Neil Smith, San Jose, CA (US);
Hitachi Global Storage Technologies Netherlands B.V., Amsterdam, NL;
Abstract
A method for manufacturing an extraordinary magnetoresistive sensor (EMR sensor) having reduced size and increased resolution is described. The sensor includes a plurality of electrically conductive leads contacting a magnetically active layer and also includes an electrically conductive shunt structure. The electrically conductive leads of the sensor and the shunt structure can be formed in a common photolithographic masking and etching process so that they are self aligned with one another. This avoids the need to align multiple photolithographic processing steps, thereby allowing greatly increased resolution and reduced lead spacing. The EMR sensor can be formed with a magnetically active layer that can be close to or at the air bearing surface (ABS) for improved magnetic spacing with an adjacent magnetic medium of a data recording system.