Appeal No. 97-3469
Application 08/188,427
write gap shadow. Therefore, the rejection under § 112, first
paragraph, is reversed.
35 U.S.C. §§ 102(b) or 103
Mowry is directed to a magnetic shield for a
magnetoresistive head. The shield's geometry is designed to
stabilize the head's magnetic domain pattern, particularly
around the magnetoresistive sensor, to make it insensitive to
external magnetic fields that occur during and after
manufacture. Mowry shows the head construction in figures 3
and 4. A write gap 44 is defined by a gap insulator layer 46
between the terminating ends of a top magnetic pole 48 and a
middle magnetic pole 50 (col. 4, lines 56-59). A sense (read)
gap 52 is defined by gap insulator layers 54 and 56 and metal
contact layer 58 between terminating ends of middle magnetic
pole 50 and bottom magnetic pole or magnetic substrate 60
(col. 4, lines 59-63). A magnetoresistive sensor element 72
is disposed in the sense gap and has a width defined by the
magnetoresistive layer 70 between metal contacts 58 (col. 5,
lines 15-21).
The examiner states (EA4):
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