ESD protection of GMR heads in manufacturing

摘要

Giant Magnetoresistive (GMR) sensors in magnetic recording heads are very sensitive to ESD. ESD protection becomes one of most important issues in manufacturing. In this paper, we compared three types of GMR shunting methods: shunting by diode, shunting by varistor, and shunting by wire. It was found that shunting by wire is the most effective way, while shunting by diode can be used in fixtures for electrical testing.