Patent ID: 7737703

Claim:
A system for detecting electrical shorts formed during the fabrication of MR heads on semiconductor wafers, the system comprising: a semiconductor wafer; a plurality of MR heads formed on the semiconductor wafer, each MR head having a pair of electrical leads that defines a track width therebetween, and a sensor that spans the track width between the electrical leads so that the electrical leads are electrically connected to each other; at least one test structure formed on the semiconductor wafer with the plurality of MR heads, the test structure having a pair of test structure electrical leads that define a test structure track width therebetween, the test structure being void of a sensor that spans the test structure track width between the test structure electrical leads so that the test structure electrical leads are electrically isolated from each other in the test structure track width; and means for electrically detecting and quantitatively measuring an electrical short formed between the test structure electrical leads.