Patent ID: 6888703

Claim:
A magnetic nano-oxide based current-perpendicular-to-plane (CPP) magnetoresistive (MR) sensor stack having increased perpendicular resistance and enhanced magnetoresistive properties, comprising: a substrate; a first metallic, non-magnetic spacer layer formed upon said substrate; a first ferromagnetic tri-layer, comprising two strongly coupled ferromagnetic layers separated by a first magnetic nano-oxide layer, formed upon said first metallic, non-magnetic spacer layer; a second metallic, non-magnetic spacer layer formed on said first ferromagnetic tri-layer; a second ferromagnetic tri-layer, comprising two strongly exchange coupled ferromagnetic layers separated by a second magnetic nano-oxide layer, formed upon said second metallic, non-magnetic spacer layer; a third metallic, non-magnetic spacer layer formed upon said second ferromagnetic tri-layer and wherein said first and second nano-oxide layers are formed of materials that differentiate resistively between spin-up and spin-down electrons and are formed with sufficient thickness to eliminate pinholes.