Fabrication and characterization of contiguous permanent magnet junctions

This paper addresses several important issues concerning contiguous permanent magnet biased magneto-resistive sensors. A fabrication process utilizing isotropically etched silicon nitride for lift-off is described, and the optimization of the permanent magnet materials is presented. From the study of resistance vs. trackwidth and sensor height, a component of the resistance inversely proportional to the sensor height is identified. The effective longitudinal bias field is found to decrease with increasing trackwidth.