High sensitivity, GMR, 1 micron wide, end-on, ganged, read head sensors

Author

Chen, E.Y. ; Pohm, A.V. ; Daughton, J.M. ; Brown, J. ; Black, W.C.

Author_Institution

NVE Inc., Eden Prairie, MN, USA

Volume

30

Issue

6

fYear

1994

fDate

11/1/1994 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

3816

Lastpage

3818

Abstract

Multiple, high sensitivity, GMR read head sensors were made and experimentally evaluated. The sensors were 1 micron wide and 10 microns long with flux gathering tips that expanded to 1.5, 2.0, and 3.0 microns. The sensors were found to have saturated outputs of 1.6 mV per micron of length for sense currents of 2.5 mA. The sensors had a very high sensitivity of 0.7% change in resistance per Oe of signal field because of the low effective anisotropy of the sensor material. Tests were performed in a uniform field at a frequency of 5 kHz on sensors without shields. Fields of ±4 Oe were sufficient to provide excitation over the full linear range. The experimental GMR material had a M-R coefficient of 6% and an anisotropy field of 5 Oe along the long axis of the sensor. The non-uniform ternary magnetic layers were 55 A ^O thick and the copper middle layers were 25 to 30 A^O thick

Keywords

electric sensing devices; giant magnetoresistance; magnetic anisotropy; magnetic flux; magnetic heads; magnetic multilayers; magnetoresistive devices; 1 micron; 1.6 mV; 10 micron; 2.5 mA; 5 kHz; GMR; M-R coefficient; anisotropy field; effective anisotropy; flux gathering tips; head sensitivity; nonuniform ternary magnetic layers; read head sensors; saturated outputs; sense currents; uniform field; Anisotropic magnetoresistance; Frequency; Magnetic anisotropy; Magnetic flux; Magnetic heads; Magnetic materials; Magnetic sensors; Performance evaluation; Perpendicular magnetic anisotropy; Testing;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Magnetics, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9464

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/20.333912

Filename

333912