Patent ID: 6914760

Claim:
A magnetoresistive (MR) read head, comprising: a lower shield layer; a lower gap layer located above the lower shield layer; an MR sensor located above the lower gap layer, the MR sensor including a free layer and a pinned layer; a three-layer hard bias layer located above the lower gap layer for stabilizing the free layer of the MR sensor, wherein a lower layer of the hard bias layer is constructed of an electrically conductive material, the hard bias layer being positioned substantially outside a physical width of the MR sensor; a pair of lead layers located above the hard bias layer and coupled to the MR sensor; an upper gap layer located above the lead layers; and an upper shield layer located above the upper gap layer; wherein a product of the magnetic moment (Ms) and the thickness (t) of the lower layer of the hard bias layer is greater than a product of the magnetic moment (Ms) and the thickness (t) of the free layer of the MR sensor.