Patent ID: 8734620

Claim:
A method of forming a hard bias structure for providing longitudinal biasing to a free layer in an adjacent spin valve element; comprising: (a) providing a spin valve element with a plurality of layers including a free layer formed therein, and having a top surface and sidewalls, and formed on a substrate; (b) forming an isolation layer made of a metal oxide, metal nitride, or metal oxynitride with a first section on said substrate and a second section along the sidewalls of the spin valve element; (c) depositing a composite seed layer having a fcc(111) crystalline lattice structure on the first and second sections of said isolation layer, said composite seed layer comprises at least a lower Ta layer and a metal M1 layer having a fcc(111) or hcp(001) crystal orientation disposed on the lower Ta layer; (d) forming a (R1/R2) x laminated hard bias layer having perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) on the composite seed layer above the first and second sections of the isolation layer where R1 is Co or CoFe, R2 is NiFe, or NiCo, x is an integer, and wherein a thickness (t 2 ) of each R2 layer is greater than a thickness (t 1 ) of each R1 layer; and (e) forming a capping layer on said (R1/R2) x laminated hard bias layer.