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. 31, 2013
Filed:
Mar. 08, 2012
Matthew J. Carey, San Jose, CA (US);
Shekar B Chandrashekariaih, San Jose, CA (US);
Jeffrey R. Childress, San Jose, CA (US);
Young-suk Choi, Los Gatos, CA (US);
John Creighton Read, San Jose, CA (US);
Matthew J. Carey, San Jose, CA (US);
Shekar B Chandrashekariaih, San Jose, CA (US);
Jeffrey R. Childress, San Jose, CA (US);
Young-suk Choi, Los Gatos, CA (US);
John Creighton Read, San Jose, CA (US);
HGST Netherlands B.V., Amsterdam, NL;
Abstract
A method for making a current-perpendicular-to the-plane giant magnetoresistance (CPP-GMR) sensor with a Heusler alloy pinned layer on the sensor's Mn-containing antiferromagnetic pinning layer uses two annealing steps. A layer of a crystalline non-Heusler alloy ferromagnetic material, like Co or CoFe, is deposited on the antiferromagnetic pinning layer and a layer of an amorphous X-containing ferromagnetic alloy, like a CoFeBTa layer, is deposited on the Co or CoFe crystalline layer. After a first in-situ annealing of the amorphous X-containing ferromagnetic alloy, the Heusler alloy pinned layer is deposited on the amorphous X-containing ferromagnetic layer and a second high-temperature annealing step is performed to improve the microstructure of the Heusler alloy pinned layer.