Magnetoresistive Sensitivity Mapping (MSM) and dynamic electrical test (DET) correlation study on GMR sensor induced by low threshold ESD stress

In the case of soft ESD damage, the GMR read sensor was magnetically changed caused by ESD stress. With magnetoresistive sens itivity mapping (MSM), which is an additional capability of magnetic force microscope (MFM), it is possible to study the subtle magnetic change due to soft ESD. In this paper, GMR heads were subjected to low voltage HBM model, and the HGAs were characterized by MSM before and after the HBM ESD stress. HGA samples were also subjected to dynamic electrical test (DET) to establish a correlation between MSM analysis and electrical performance of the GMR head.