Patent ID: 7291279

Claim:
A method of making a read sensor while protecting it from electrostatic discharge (ESD) damage, comprising: forming a resist layer over a plurality of read sensor layers; performing lithography with use of a mask to form the resist layer into a patterned resist which exposes left and right side regions over the read sensor layers and simultaneously exposes a shunt region defined in front of an air bearing surface (ABS) of the read sensor; etching, with the patterned resist in place, to remove sensor layer materials in the left and right side regions for defining a trackwidth of the read sensor and to simultaneous remove sensor layer materials in the shunt region defined in front of the ABS; depositing, with the patterned resist in place, left and right hard bias and lead layers in the left and right side regions, respectively, and in the shunt region for forming, in front of the ABS, a severable shunt which lies in the same plane as and electrically couples the left and right hard bias and lead layers together; and cutting and lapping along the ABS.