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:
Jan. 12, 2016
Filed:
Mar. 29, 2013
Hgst Netherlands B.v., Amsterdam, NL;
Patrick Mesquita Braganca, San Jose, CA (US);
Jeffrey R. Childress, San Jose, CA (US);
Jordan Asher Katine, Mountain View, CA (US);
Yang Li, San Jose, CA (US);
Neil Leslie Robertson, Palo Alto, CA (US);
Neil Smith, San Jose, CA (US);
Petrus Antonius VanDerHeijden, Cupertino, CA (US);
Douglas Johnson Werner, Fremont, CA (US);
HGST Netherlands B.V., Amsterdam, NL;
Abstract
A method for making a current-perpendicular-to-the-plane magnetoresistive sensor structure produces a top electrode that is 'self-aligned' on the top of the sensor and with a width less than the sensor trackwidth. A pair of walls of ion-milling resistant material are fabricated to a predetermined height above the biasing layers at the sensor side edges. A layer of electrode material is then deposited onto the top of the sensor between the two walls. The walls serve as a mask during angled ion milling to remove outer portions of the electrode layer. The height of the walls and the angle of ion milling determines the width of the resulting top electrode. This leaves the reduced-width top electrode located on the sensor. Because of the directional ion milling using walls that are aligned with the sensor side edges, the reduced-width top electrode is self-aligned in the center of the sensor.