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. 17, 2013
Filed:
Mar. 08, 2012
Elizabeth Ann Brinkman, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Matthew J. Carey, San Jose, CA (US);
Jeffrey R. Childress, San Jose, CA (US);
Young-suk Choi, Los Gatos, CA (US);
Brian R. York, San Jose, CA (US);
Elizabeth Ann Brinkman, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Matthew J. Carey, San Jose, CA (US);
Jeffrey R. Childress, San Jose, CA (US);
Young-suk Choi, Los Gatos, CA (US);
Brian R. York, San Jose, CA (US);
HGST Netherlands B.V., Amsterdam, NL;
Abstract
A current-perpendicular-to-the-plane giant magnetoresistance (CPP-GMR) sensor has a multilayer reference layer containing a Heusler alloy. The multilayer reference layer may be a simple pinned layer or the AP2 layer of an antiparallel (AP)-pinned structure. The multilayer reference layer is formed of a crystalline non-Heusler alloy ferromagnetic layer on either an antiferromagnetic layer (in a simple pinned structure) or an antiparallel coupling (APC) layer (in an AP-pinned structure), a Heusler alloy layer adjacent the sensor's nonmagnetic electrically conducting spacer layer, and an intermediate substantially non-crystalline X-containing layer between the crystalline non-Heusler alloy layer and the Heusler alloy layer. The element X is selected from one or more of tantalum (Ta), hafnium (Hf), niobium (Nb) and boron (B).