Patent ID: 7467459

Claim:
A method for manufacturing a current in plane giant magnetoresistive sensor, comprising: depositing a first non-magnetic electrically insulating gap layer; depositing a plurality of sensor layers; forming, a first mask, the first mask being configured to define a track width of the sensor; performing a first material removal process to remove sensor material not covered by the first mask, thereby defining first and second laterally opposed sides of the sensor; depositing a layer of electrically conductive lead material; removing the first mask, the electrically conductive lead material remaining at the first and second sides of the sensor; after removing the first mask, forming a second mask having an opening configured to define a back edge which defines a stripe height of the sensor, the opening having a lateral width greater than the track width of the sensor; performing a second material removal process to remove sensor material exposed by the opening in the second mask, thereby defining the back edge of the sensor; depositing a layer of non-magnetic electrically insulating material to form a hard bias insulation layer, the non-magnetic electrically insulating material extending over the back edge of the sensor but not over the first and second laterally opposed sides of the sensor; depositing a hard magnetic bias layer over the non-magnetic electrically insulating material, the hard magnetic bias layer being adjacent to the back edge of the sensor and separated from the back edge of the sensor by the non-magnetic electrically insulating material, the hard magnetic bias layer not extending over the first and second laterally opposed sides of the sensor; and depositing a second non-magnetic electrically insulating gap layer.