Shielded magnetic tunnel junction magnetoresistive read head

摘要

A magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) magnetoresistive read head for a magnetic recording system has the MTJ device located between two spaced-apart magnetic shields. The magnetic shields, which allow the head to detect individual magnetic transitions from the magnetic recording medium without interference from neighboring transitions, also function as electrical leads for connection of the head to sense circuitry. Electrically conductive spacer layers are located at the top and bottom of the MTJ device and connect the MTJ device to the shields. The thickness of the spacer layers is selected to optimize the spacing between the shields, which is a parameter that controls the linear resolution of the data that can be read from the magnetic recording medium. To reduce the likelihood of electrical shorting between the shields if the shield-to-shield spacing is too small, each of the shields can have a pedestal region with the MTJ device located between the two pedestals, so that the shield-to-shield spacing outside the pedestal regions is greater than in the pedestal regions.