Patent ID: 7111385

Claim:
A method of forming a spin valve sensor, comprising: forming a ferromagnetic free layer structure that has a magnetic moment; forming a ferromagnetic pinned layer structure having a magnetic moment; forming a nonmagnetic conductive spacer layer between the free layer structure and the pinned layer structure; forming an anti-ferromagnetic pinning layer coupled to the pinned layer structure for pinning the magnetic moment of the pinned layer structure; forming hard magnetic thin films on both sides of at least a portion of the free layer structure, the ferromagnetic pinned layer structure, the nonmagnetic conductive spacer layer and the anti-ferromagnetic pinning layer; and forming a hard bias seedlayer structure adjacent to and on opposite sides of at least a portion of the free layer structure, the ferromagnetic pinned layer structure, the nonmagnetic conductive spacer layer and the anti-ferromagnetic pinning layer, wherein the forming the hard bias seedlayer structure comprises forming at least a first layer comprising silicon and a second layer comprising chromium or chromium molybdenum.