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. 16, 2012
Filed:
Apr. 04, 2011
Kunliang Zhang, Milpitas, CA (US);
Min LI, Dublin, CA (US);
Yu-hsia Chen, Mountain View, CA (US);
Chyu-jiuh Torng, Pleasanton, CA (US);
Kunliang Zhang, Milpitas, CA (US);
Min Li, Dublin, CA (US);
Yu-Hsia Chen, Mountain View, CA (US);
Chyu-Jiuh Torng, Pleasanton, CA (US);
Headway Technologies, Inc., Milpitas, CA (US);
Abstract
A CPP-GMR spin valve having a CoFe/NiFe composite free layer is disclosed in which Fe content of the CoFe layer ranges from 20 to 70 atomic % and Ni content in the NiFe layer varies from 85 to 100 atomic % to maintain low Hc and λvalues. A higher than normal Fe content in the CoFe layer improves the MR ratio by ≧16% compared with conventional CoFe/NiFe free layers in which the Fe content in CoFe is typically <20 atomic % and the Ni content in NiFe is <85 atomic %. The CPP-GMR performance may also be optimized by incorporating a confining current path layer in the copper spacer between the pinned layer and free layer. For a pinned layer with an AP2/Ru/AP1 configuration, the spin valve performance is further improved by an AP1 layer comprised of a lamination of CoFe and Cu layers as in [CoFe/Cu]/CoFe.