Patent ID: 7320167

Claim:
A process for manufacturing a CPP GMR read head, comprising: providing a lower magnetic shield; depositing a lower conductive lead layer on said lower magnetic shield; depositing a compensatory bias layer on said lower conductive lead layer; depositing, on said compensatory bias layer, a GMR stack whose top layer is a conductive non-magnetic layer; depositing a free layer on said top layer; depositing an upper conductive lead layer on said free layer; coating said upper conductive lead layer with a layer of photoresist and then patterning said photoresist to form a mask that defines said read head; using said mask, etching unprotected parts of said upper conductive lead layer, said free layer, said GMR stack, said compensatory bias layer, and said lower conductive lead layer, thereby forming a pedestal, that has vertical sidewalls as far down as said lower conductive lead layer and sloping sidewalls formed from said lower conductive lead layer; depositing a first dielectric layer that lies on said lower magnetic shield and sloping side walls and that abuts all of said vertical sidewalls; on said first dielectric layer, depositing a permanent magnet layer; depositing a second dielectric layer on said permanent magnet layer; then removing all photoresist; and depositing an upper magnetic shield.