Method and system for providing a magnetic transducer having an improved read sensor synthetic antiferromagnet

A method for fabricating a magnetoresistive structure for use in a magnetic transducer, the method comprising:

• providing a pinning layer;
• providing a synthetic antiferromagnetic (SAF) adjacent to the pinning layer, the SAF including a pinned layer, a reference layer, and a nonmagnetic spacer layer between the pinned layer and the reference layer, the pinned layer being magnetically coupled with the reference layer and including a plurality of sublayers, a first sublayer of the plurality of sublayers having a first blocking temperature distribution (TBD) and a first exchange energy, a second sublayer of the plurality of sublayers having a second TBD and a second exchange energy, the first sublayer residing between the pinning layer and the second sublayer, the first TBD being greater than the second TBD, the first exchange energy being less than the second exchange energy;
• providing a nonmagnetic layer, the SAF residing between the nonmagnetic layer and the pinning layer;
• providing a sensor layer, the nonmagnetic layer residing between the SAF and the sensor layer;
• and
• patterning the magnetoresistive structure in the pinning layer, the SAF, the nonmagnetic layer, and the sensor layer.