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. 10, 2016
Filed:
Mar. 14, 2013
Headway Technologies, Inc., Milpitas, CA (US);
Min Li, Fremont, CA (US);
Ruhang Ding, Pleasanton, CA (US);
Cherng Chyi Han, San Jose, CA (US);
Jianing Zhou, Fremont, CA (US);
Minghui Yu, Fremont, CA (US);
Headway Technologies, Inc., Milpitas, CA (US);
Abstract
A TMR (tunneling magnetoresistive) read sensor is formed in which a portion of the sensor stack containing the ferromagnetic free layer and the tunneling barrier layer is patterned to define a narrow trackwidth, but a synthetic antiferromagnetic pinning/pinned layer is left substantially unpatterned and extends in substantially as-deposited form beyond the lateral edges bounding the patterned portion. The narrow trackwidth of the patterned portion permits high resolution for densely recorded data. The larger pinning/pinned layer significantly improves magnetic stability and reduces thermal noise, while the method of formation eliminates possible ion beam etch (IBE) or reactive ion etch (RIE) damage to the edges of the pinning/pinned layer.