Patent ID: 7346977

Claim:
A method for making a magnetoresistive sensor, the sensor being a read head for reading data from data tracks of a magnetic recording medium and the read head having a track width and a stripe height orthogonal to the track width, the method comprising: providing a generally planar substrate; providing on the substrate a plurality of sensor layers including a first ferromagnetic layer, a spacer layer on the first ferromagnetic layer and a second ferromagnetic layer on the spacer layer; forming a patterned layer of photoresist over the sensor layers, said patterned layer including a generally rectangular region having first and second long edges defining a rectangular region width; aligning a potential ion beam at an angle to the substrate with the photoresist pattern being oriented with one of the first and second rectangular region long edges being generally orthogonal to and facing an in-plane directional component of the potential ion beam; ion milling the sensor layers to remove, in the area exposed to the ions, at least a portion of the spacer layer and the sensor layers above the spacer layer; orienting the photoresist pattern with the other of the first and second rectangular region long edges being generally orthogonal to and facing an in-plane directional component of the ion beam; and ion milling the sensor layers to remove, in the area exposed to the ions, substantially all of the first ferromagnetic layer and the sensor layers below the first ferromagnetic layer; wherein, after ion milling, the stripe height is defined by lapping the substrate and sensor layers in a plane substantially parallel to the track width and perpendicular to the substrate; and wherein the thickness of the photoresist layer and the angle between the ion beam and the substrate substantially define the width of the first ferromagnetic layer to be wider than said stripe height.