Abstract: A magnetoresistive device with suppressed Barkhausen noise for restraining a cross-talk from adjacent tracks recorded on a magnetic medium, and a manufacturing method thereof. The width of the middle portion of a detection area in a magnetoresistive layer is thicker than that of shoulder portions. In the magnetoresistive device, the shoulder portions, which perform exchange coupling with the antiferromagnetic exchange layer, show a weak reaction to external magnetic field due to the high coercive force of the shoulder portions and a smaller thickness of the magnetoresistive layer than that of the detection area. Thus, when information on any one track of an information medium is read out through the detection area, the shoulder portions only slightly react to the external magnetic field of the adjacent tracks, i.e., the affect on the detection area by the shoulder portions is minimized.

Abstract: A magneto-resistive (MR) element of a thin-film magnetic head comprises a three-layer structure. The three-layer structure comprises a layer of soft magnetic material, a thin non-magnetic decoupling layer and an MR layer, and has an ellipse-like C-shape with a gap in its back passive region. The axis of easy magnetization of the MR layer is parallel to the main axis of the ellipse-like C-shape three-layered structure. The MR layer is longitudinally biased by an exchange bias field developed by exchange coupling between the antiferromagnetic layer and the MR layer. The antiferromagnetic layer is deposited in direct contact only in the back passive region of the MR layer of a level sufficient to maintain that region of the MR layer in a linear response mode. Spaced conductor leads are connected directly to the MR layer within the front active region to define a detection region, and through the antiferromagnetic layer in the back passive region.