Patent ID: 7596854

Claim:
A method for fabricating a read head for a hard disk drive having a read head sensor and a hard bias layer, said read head having a shaped junction between said read head sensor and said hard bias layer, said method comprising: A) providing a layered wafer stack to be shaped, said layered wafer stack including a free layer, an AFM layer and a first seed layer; B) depositing a single- or multi-layered photoresist mask having no undercut upon said layered wafer stack to be shaped; C) providing a milling source which produces an output at a defined angle of projection; D) adjusting the angle of said layered wafer stack to be shaped relative to said angle of projection of said milling source; E) establishing a partial milling range by which milling extends at least through said free magnetic layer, but stops short of milling completely through said first seed layer; F) partially milling said layered wafer stack by said output of said milling source to within said partial milling range where said partial milling extends to a partial milling depth having a depth endpoint within said partial milling range, where said depth endpoint of said partial milling lies within said first seed layer to form the shaped junction: and G) depositing said hard bias layer in contact with said shaped junction.