Abstract
For high sensitivity magnetoresistive (MR) transducers, the role of interstrip gap is examined as a design parameter. This is modeled using analytic and numerical approximations. As the gap is narrowed the range of linearity of the MR transducer decreases and the sensitivity increases. For gap/width ratio exceeding 1.8 the strips behave essentially as isolated strips. An example using typical design parameters shows that the minimum detectable field is reduced from 6.3 μOe/√Hz to 3.6 μOe/√Hz as gap/width ratio is reduced from ∞ to 0.1.