Patent ID: 6307721
Filing Date: 2001-10-23
Classification: G11B

Abstract:
A magnetoresistive (MR) sensor element maintaining an attenuated read gap thickness while having attenuated leakage between conductor lead layers and a blanket shield layer comprising:a substrate;a first shield layer formed over the substrate;a first dielectric spacer layer formed upon the first shield layer;a patterned magnetoresistive (MR) layer formed upon the first dielectric spacer layer, said magnetoresistive (MR) layer being formed by use of a novel lift off stencil;a pair of patterned longitudinal magnetic biasing layers formed adjacent to and covering a pair of opposite ends of the patterned magnetoresistive (MR) layer, said patterned magnetic biasing layers being formed by using the same said novel lift off stencil;a pair of patterned conductor lead layers formed adjacent to and communicating electrically with a pair of opposite ends of the patterned magnetoresistive (MR) layer to define a trackwidth of the patterned magnetoresistive (MR) layer, said patterned conduct lead layers being formed by using the same novel lift off stencil;a pair of patterned second dielectric spacer layers being formed over the said patterned conductor lead layers and extending over opposite ends of said patterned magnetoresistive (MR) layer but not completely covering said magnetoresistive (MR) layer, said dielectric spacer layers being formed by using the same novel lift off stencil;a blanket third dielectric spacer layer formed upon the pair of patterned second dielectric spacer layers and upon the patterned magnetoresistive (MR) layer at the trackwidth of the patterned magnetoresistive (MR) layer; anda second shield layer formed upon the blanket third dielectric spacer layer, where a sum of the thicknesses of the second patterned dielectric spacer layer plus the third blanket dielectric spacer layer separating a patterned conductor lead layer within a pair of patterned conductor lead layers from the second shield layer is greater than a single thickness of the blanket third dielectric spacer layer separating the patterned magnetoresistive (MR) layer from the second shield layer within the trackwidth of the patterned magnetoresistive (MR) layer.