Patent ID: 7914654

Claim:
A system for manufacturing a tunnel-type magnetoresistive multilayer film where an antiferromagnetic layer, a pinned-magnetization layer, a nonmagnetic insulating spacer layer and a free-magnetization layer are laminated on a substrate, comprising: a vacuum chamber having a pumping line connected thereto; a substrate holder provided in the vacuum chamber to hold the substrate; a cathode provided in the vacuum chamber to ignite a sputter discharge; a gas introduction line capable of introducing argon and a gas of larger atomic number than argon into the vacuum chamber; valves provided on the gas introduction line so that the gas of larger atomic number than argon is introduced into the vacuum chamber when the antiferromagnetic layer is deposited on the substrate by the sputter discharge, and so that argon is introduced into the vacuum chamber when the pinned-magnetization layer, the nonmagnetic insulating spacer layer and the free-magnetization layer are deposited on the substrate by the sputter discharge; and a controller to control a flow rate of the gas of larger atomic number than argon in a range from 10 percent to 50 percent when the film for the antiferromagnetic layer is deposited on the substrate by the sputter discharge, wherein the gas of larger atomic number than argon is krypton or xenon, and the pinned-magnetization layer is the layer where direction of magnetization is pinned by coupling with the antiferromagnetic layer, and the free-magnetization layer is the layer where direction of magnetization is free.