PERFORMANCE-CHARACTERISTICS OF A 4-TERMINAL VERTICAL MAGNETORESISTIVEINDUCTIVE HEAD/

A 4-terminal vertical magnetoresistive (MR)/inductive head using the c urrent bias technique has been developed. In the new head, a bias curr ent conductor is connected to the rear lead of the MR element in serie s. With this design, this type of MR/inductive head can have a second harmonic distortion(SHD) of less than -25dB with a 6 to 16mA sense cur rent. The linear recording density at D50 is about 3.15kfr/mm. The eff ective track width of tie MR sensor is almost the same as its optical track width(2.5 mu m), so high track density(TPI) is possible. The sta bility of an MR element with a 2 mu m track width was also investigate d.