Silver alloy electrical lapping guides (ELGs) for fabrication of disk drive sliders with magnetoresistive sensors

An air-bearing slider that supports a read/write head in a magnetic recording disk drive, the slider having a generally planar upper surface and an air-bearing surface (ABS) generally orthogonal to said upper surface, the slider comprising:

• a magnetoresistive sensor directly on the upper surface, the sensor being formed of a stack of multiple layers and having a front edge at the ABS and a back edge recessed from said sensor front edge, the sensor back edge having a planar portion generally parallel to the sensor front edge and substantially orthogonal to the upper surface and a tapered portion nonparallel to the sensor front edge and the upper surface and connecting the upper surface to the planar portion of the sensor back edge;
• and
• an electrical lapping guide (ELG) on the upper surface adjacent to the sensor and having a front edge at the ABS and a back edge generally parallel to and recessed from said ELG front edge and substantially orthogonal to the upper surface, the ELG being formed of an alloy comprising Ag and one or more of Sn, Ge and Zn.