Patent ID: 7159304

Claim:
A method of manufacturing a spin-valve giant magnetoresistive head comprising the steps of: forming a lower shield layer on a substrate; forming a lower insulated gap layer on said lower shield layer; forming multiple thin films on said lower insulated gap layer, said multiple thin films including an antiferromagnetic layer, a pinned magnetic layer, a nonmagnetic conductive spacer, a free magnetic layer and a nonmagnetic protective layer; forming a desired resist mask pattern on said multiple thin films with an organic film exhibiting a thickness within the range of 0.01 to 0.05 μm and a resist film exhibiting a thickness within the range of 0.1 to 0.35 μm; etching uncovered portions of said multiple thin films under openings of said resist mask pattern to pattern said multiple thin films into multiple thin films of GMR sensor; forming magnetic-domain control layers and conductive layers at both ends of said multiple thin films of GMR sensor; and removing said resist mask pattern to lift off said magnetic-domain control layers and said conductive layers.