RECORDING PERFORMANCE AND PROCESS TOLERANCE OF DUAL-STRIPE MR HEADS

In this work, we present an analysis of the recording performance and process tolerance of shielded dual-stripe MR heads. Using a micromagne tic model, we study isolated read-back pulses and the dependence of th e peak asymmetry on both mismatch of the two MR stripes and offtrack m isalignment. Results show, as long as the two MR stripes are away from their saturation regions, the differential mode of the output does no t have severe peak asymmetry caused by mismatch of the two MR stripes. The off-track performance study shows that peak asymmetry is also ver y small with up to 0.5 mu m read-to-write misalignment. The linear res olution is found to be comparable to that of SAL-biased MR heads and i nsensitive to the spacer thickness between the two MR stripes.