Thin Film Magnetoresistive Sensors presents a comprehensive review of thin film magnetoresistive (MR) sensors, including the theory of MR effects as well as the design, fabrication, properties, and applications of MR sensors. With over 1,000 references, the book fully reviews the theory, development, and use of these sensors. It provides essential information about the performance of various kinds of sensors, including permalloy magnetoresistors, spin valve sensors, multilayer sensors, colossal effect sensors, spin dependent tunneling sensors, and magnetoimpedance sensors.

Thin Film Magnetoresistive Sensors presents a comprehensive review of thin film magnetoresistive (MR) sensors, including the theory of MR effects as well as the design, fabrication, properties, and applications of MR sensors. With over 1,000 references, the book fully reviews the theory, development, and use of these sensors. It provides essential information about the performance of various kinds of sensors, including permalloy magnetoresistors, spin valve sensors, multilayer sensors, colossal effect sensors, spin dependent tunneling sensors, and magnetoimpedance sensors. Divided into three independent parts, the book first concentrates on the most widely used sensors-anisotropic magnetoresistive sensors (AMR). The second part deals with giant magnetoresistive (GMR) sensors, including those still in development. In the third section, the book describes the applications of MR sensors, especially in data storage systems, industrial measurements, and nondestructive material testing systems.

This five-volume handbook focuses on processing techniques, characterization methods, and physical properties of thin films (thin layers of insulating, conducting, or semiconductor material). The editor has composed five separate, thematic volumes on thin films of metals, semimetals, glasses, ceramics, alloys, organics, diamonds, graphites, porous materials, noncrystalline solids, supramolecules, polymers, copolymers, biopolymers, composites, blends, activated carbons, intermetallics, chalcogenides, dyes, pigments, nanostructured materials, biomaterials, inorganic/polymer composites, organoceramics, metallocenes, disordered systems, liquid crystals, quasicrystals, and layered structures. Thin films is a field of the utmost importance in today's materials science, electrical engineering and applied solid state physics; with both research and industrial applications in microelectronics, computer manufacturing, and physical devices. Advanced, high-performance computers, high-definition TV, digital camcorders, sensitive broadband imaging systems, flat-panel displays, robotic systems, and medical electronics and diagnostics are but a few examples of miniaturized device technologies that depend the utilization of thin film materials. The Handbook of Thin Films Materials is a comprehensive reference focusing on processing techniques, characterization methods, and physical properties of these thin film materials.

This book presents an overview of some trends of research and development in the area of magnetic sensors, from materials to applications. A first focus is made on the topics of amorphous micro-wires and thin-film structures and their fabrication, characterization, and application for magnetic sensors based on the effects of giant magneto-impedance (GMI) and magneto-elasticity. A second section deals with the magneto-impedance (MR) sensors, from the development of new materials to sensor implementation and applications. Intended for readers wishing to acquire understanding of the current trends in these areas and comprehension of the issues and the potential of applications of these sensors, this book addresses exciting topics in this field.

Since the discovery of the giant magnetoresistance (GMR) effect in 1988, spintronics has been presented as a new technology paradigm, awarded by the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2007. Initially used in read heads of hard disk drives, and while disputing a piece of the market to the flash memories, GMR devices have broadened their range of usage by growing towards magnetic field sensing applications in a huge range of scenarios. Potential applications at the time of the discovery have become real in the last two decades. Definitively, GMR was born to stand. In this sense, selected successful approaches of GMR based sensors in different applications: space, automotive, microelectronics, biotechnology ... are collected in the present book. While keeping a practical orientation, the fundamentals as well as the current trends and challenges of this technology are also analyzed. In this sense, state of the art contributions from academy and industry can be found through the contents. This book can be used by starting researchers, postgraduate students and multidisciplinary scientists in order to have a reference text in this topical fascinating field.

This up-to-date handbook covers the main topics of preparation, characterization and properties of complex metal-based layer systems. The authors -- an outstanding group of researchers -- discuss advanced methods for structure, chemical and electronic state characterization with reference to the properties of thin functional layers, such as metallization and barrier layers for microelectronics, magnetoresistive layers for GMR and TMR, sensor and resistance layers. As such, the book addresses materials specialists in industry, especially in microelectronics, as well as scientists, and can also be recommended for advanced studies in materials science, analytics, surface and solid state science.