FABRICATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF CONTIGUOUS PERMANENT-MAGNET JUNCTIONS

This paper addresses several important issues concerning contiguous pe rmanent magnet biased magnetoresistive sensors. A fabrication process utilizing isotropically etched silicon nitride for lift-off is describ ed, and the optimization of the permanent magnet materials is presente d. From the study of resistance vs. trackwidth and sensor height, a co mponent of the resistance inversely propotional to the sensor height I s identified. The effective longitudinal bias field is found to decrea se with increasing trackwidth.