Effect of ESD transients on noise in GMR recording heads ☆

Noise spectra up to 600 MHz were measured on GMR recording heads before and after ESD direct charge device model (DCDM) transients. ESD introduces Barkhausen jumps, hysteresis, changes in amplitude and changes in resistance in transfer curves. We study the change in noise induced by these features. A major source of noise is magnetic noise, but there remains some unexplained noise sources.