Patent ID: 8480911

Claim:
A method for fabricating a read sensor on a substrate for a read transducer, the read transducer having a field region and a device region in which the read sensor resides, the method comprising: depositing a read sensor stack including a plurality of layers on the substrate; providing a mask on the read sensor stack, the mask having a pattern, the pattern covering a first portion of the read sensor stack corresponding to the read sensor, covering a second portion of the read sensor stack distal from the read sensor, and exposing a third portion of the read sensor stack between the first portion and the second portion of the read sensor stack; defining the read sensor from the read sensor stack in a track width direction, the defining the read sensor including substantially removing the third portion of the read sensor stack, the read sensor having an inboard junction angle and an outboard junction angle; performing a critical junction (CJ) focused ion beam scan (FIBS) polishing of the transducer, the CJ FIBS polishing removing a portion of the read sensor based on the inboard junction angle and the outboard junction angle; depositing a hard bias structure; planarizing the transducer; removing a remaining portion of the mask; providing a stripe height mask covering a fourth portion of the read sensor and a portion of the hard bias structure in a stripe height direction; defining a stripe height of the read sensor from the read sensor stack; performing a tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) FIBS polishing of the field region of the transducer, the TMR FIBS polishing removing a remaining portion of the read sensor stack in the field region; and providing an insulating layer for electrically insulating the read transducer.