Analysis of Barkhausen noise failure caused by ESD in a GMR head

We used a spin-stand with a pre-amplifier with a built-in ESD simulator circuit to investigate a new magnetic failure mode caused by ESD current. This failure mode originates in Barkhausen noise from unexpected domain walls in the free layer of a giant magnetoresistive (GMR) head. According to a modified machine model (0 Ω, 50 pF), this failure occurs at around 0.5 V, i.e., a quarter of that at which a conventional pinned layer reversal failure occurs.