Patent ID: 7342753

Claim:
A magnetoresistive (MR) read element for a recording head of a magnetic disk drive system, the read element comprising: a free layer; a first spacer layer adjacent to the free layer; and a biasing layer structure for longitudinally biasing the free layer, the biasing layer structure comprising: a first pinned bias layer adjacent to the first spacer layer and having a width substantially similar to a width of the free layer; an antiparallel coupling (APC) layer adjacent to the first pinned bias layer; and a second pinned bias layer adjacent to the APC layer that is antiparallel (AP) coupled to the first pinned bias layer and has a width greater than the width of the first pinned bias layer and the width of the free layer; the first pinned bias layer has a thickness greater than the thickness of the second pinned bias layer so that the first pinned bias layer and the second pinned bias layer have substantially similar volumes.