Fabrication and electrical properties of lapped type of TMR heads for /spl sim/50 Gb/in/sup 2/ and beyond

Tunnel giant magnetoresistance (TMR) heads at /spl sim/50 Gb/in/sup 2/ have been fabricated using improved lapping process. Together with writer of 2.0 T pole materials, recording performance has been demonstrated at magnetic write width of 0.28 /spl mu/m and magnetic read width of 0.18 /spl mu/m. The resistance area product of final wafer data is around 5 /spl Omega//spl middot//spl mu/m/sup 2/, with lead and contact resistance included, resulting in a final head resistance of around 200 /spl Omega/. The output voltage achieved for 1 mA bias current is 42 mV//spl mu/m, and the isolated pulses are stable. With a discrete preamplifier, the track density as measured by "747 curve" is 94 kTPI at a bit-error rate of 10/sup -4/ and the linear density is 508 kBPI, achieving an areal density of 48 Gb/in/sup 2/. The noise analysis reveals that the noises come mainly from media and shot noise.