Technique for measuring process induced magnetic anisotropy in a magnetoresistive sensor

Abstract

A method for determining a magnetic anisotropy of a free layer of a magnetoresistive sensor. The method includes forming a functional magnetoresistive sensor and also a test sensor on a wafer. The test sensor has a sensor stack that is identical to that of the functional sensor, however the test head does not have a magnetic bias structure for biasing the free layer. A series of tests can be performed to construct a transfer curve for the test sensor. This can then be used to determine a magnetic anisotropy of the test head, which also corresponds to a magnetic anisotropy of the functional head.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.