A study of ESD sensitivity in AMR and GMR recording heads

Abstract

In this paper, the behaviour of giant magnetoresistive (GMR) recording devices "zapped" with increasing human body model (HBM) ESD currents was studied through quasi-static tests (QST), magnetic tests (MT) and bit-error rate (BER) tests. The threshold HBM voltage value sufficient to "magnetically" damage the GMR head was presented. The behaviour of anisotropic magnetoresistive (AMR) recording devices "zapped" with increasing HBM ESD currents was also studied. The relationship between the threshold HBM voltage, sufficient to raise the resistance of AMR head by 1%, versus the AMR areal density is presented.