Anisotropic magnetoresistive transducers on the basis of a self-aligned structure

Abstract

A new design of anisotropic magnetoresistive structures, in which the shape of ferromagnetic elements repeats the shape of nonmagnetic conducting shunts, is proposed in order to increase sensitivity. Numerical simulation taking into account the nonuniform distribution of magnetization shows that selfaligned structures have a significantly higher sensitivity than classical “barber-pole” structures. Presumably, this advantage can be explained by the nonuiniformity of the magnetization in self-aligned structures, which compensates the influence of irregularity of the electric-current distribution.