Iridium manganese based tunneling magnetoresistive sensing element with tantalum nitride buffer layer to improve thermal stability

The invention relates to an iridium manganese based tunneling magnetoresistive sensing element with a tantalum nitride buffer layer to improve thermal stability. A tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) sensing element includes a layer stack having a tantalum nitride (TaN) layer; a reference layer system; a non-magnetic layer having non-magnetic magnetization; and a tunnel barrier layer disposed between the reference layer system and the non-magnetic layer. The reference layer system includes: a pinned layer having a fixed pinned magnetization; a reference layer having a fixed reference magnetization; a coupling intermediate layer disposed between the pinned layer and the reference layer; and a natural antiferromagnetic (NAF) layer including iridium manganese (IrMn), where the NAF layer is formed in direct contact with the TaN layer, where the NAF layer is configured to maintain a fixed pinning magnetization in a first magnetic orientation and a fixed reference magnetization in a second magnetic orientation, and w