Patent ID: 7350284

Claim:
A method of making a current-perpendicular-to-the-planes (CPP) type sensor, comprising: depositing a plurality of sensor layers over a wafer; forming, over the sensor layers, a mask without undercuts in a central region; with the mask without undercuts in place: starting an ion milling process to remove sensor layer materials, including nonmagnetic spacer layer materials, left exposed by the mask without undercuts in end regions which surround the central region; stopping the ion milling process at or near the removal of the nonmagnetic spacer layer materials in the end regions, for forming a read sensor structure having a free layer with sidewalls that are in alignment with sidewalls of a nonmagnetic spacer layer; and after the ion milling process, depositing insulator materials in the end regions and over the aligned sidewalls of the free layer and the nonmagnetic spacer layer.