Patent ID: 7374952

Claim:
A method of manufacturing a semiconductor device, the method comprising: providing a workpiece; depositing a first magnetic layer over the workpiece; depositing a tunnel insulator over the first magnetic layer; depositing a second magnetic layer over the tunnel insulator, wherein the second magnetic layer, tunnel insulator, and first magnetic layer form a magnetic stack; depositing a hard mask over the second magnetic layer; patterning the hard mask, the patterned hard mask comprising first sidewalls; patterning at least the second magnetic layer using the hard mask as a mask, the patterned second magnetic layer comprising second sidewalls; depositing a conformal hard mask material over the patterned hard mask, at least the patterned second magnetic layer, and unpatterned layers of the magnetic stack; anisotropically etching the conformal hard mask material, removing the conformal hard mask material from a top surface of the hard mask and from a top surface of the unpatterned layers of the magnetic stack, leaving portions of the conformal hard mask material at least over the first sidewalls of the hard mask and over the second sidewalls of the patterned second material layer, the remaining conformal hard mask material comprising a sidewall spacer hard mask, the sidewall spacer hard mask comprising downwardly sloping sidewalls; and patterning the unpatterned layers of the magnetic stack using the sidewall spacer hard mask as a mask.