A heating model including effects on magnetoresistance (MR) in MR and giant MR heads

Abstract

An analytic model is presented that describes current induced heating effects in giant magnetoresistive (GMR) heads. Unlike previous transmission line models, the model includes temperature effects on the measured GMR response of the head in addition to changes in the temperature and the resistance. The response of the head will decrease with temperature in part due to the negative thermal coefficient for the GMR. The model predicts that the measured GMR response does not decrease as much as indicated by the thermal coefficient since the signal is enhanced by the change in temperature due to the GMR response to the applied field.