Patent ID: 8107202

Claim:
A magnetic head, comprising: a magnetoresistive read sensor including a free layer, a barrier layer and a pinned structure between the barrier layer and an antiferromagnetic pinning layer, the pinned structure comprising: a first pinned layer (AP 1 ) exchange coupled to the antiferromagnetic pinning layer; an antiparallel coupling layer; and a second pinned stack disposed between the barrier layer and the antiparallel coupling layer and antiparallel coupled to the first pinned layer, wherein the second pinned stack includes a first magnetic layer (AP 2 ( a )), a second magnetic layer (AP 2 ( b )) and thin layer of Ta sandwiched between said first magnetic layer (AP 2 ( a )) and said second magnetic layer (AP 2 ( b )), and wherein said second magnetic layer (AP 2 ( b )) is located between the thin layer of Ta and the barrier layer, and said first magnetic layer (AP 2 ( a )) has a greater thickness than said second magnetic layer (AP 2 ( b )).