Read head having one or more antiferromagnetic layers above soft bias side shields, and related methods

A read head for magnetic storage devices, comprising:

• a lower shield;
• a plurality of upper shields;
• one or more lower leads disposed between the lower shield and the plurality of upper shields;
• a plurality of upper leads disposed above the one or more lower leads along a downtrack direction, wherein each of the one or more lower leads and each of the plurality of upper leads is conductive;
• a plurality of read sensors disposed between the one or more lower leads and the plurality of upper leads, each read sensor of the plurality of read sensors comprising a multilayer structure, the multilayer structure comprising:
• a first antiferromagnetic (AFM) layer, and
• a free layer;
• a plurality of soft bias side shields disposed among the plurality of read sensors;
• and
• a plurality of second AFM layers disposed between the plurality of upper shields and the plurality of soft bias side shields.