Cross talk in shielded magnetoresistive sensors

A model is presented for one component of the cross talk in shielded magnetoresistance sensors. It describes the contribution produced by anisotropic flux propagation in the permeable parts of a sensor structure which may extend beyond the intended width of the read track. In some designs, this predicts that the cross talk is produced at one side of the sensor, depending on the polarity of the signal. The width of the region producing the cross talk, typically under 2 /spl mu/m, is proportional to the sensor height and increases nonlinearly with the signal strength. When the recorded track is wider than the sensor, this also makes the asymmetry of the readback signal change with the alignment between the sensor and the recorded track; the agreement between the predicted and observed dependence suggests that this is the dominant cross talk mechanism.