Manufacturing method for reader side shield

1. A method comprising:

removing non-magnetic material from a front portion of a magnetoresistive (MR) sensor including an air-bearing surface (ABS) while leaving the non-magnetic material in-tact in a middle region of the MR sensor, the middle region being separated from the ABS by the front portion of the MR sensor;

forming a monolithic shield of the MR sensor in a single deposition operation, the monolithic shield being deposited on the front portion of the MR sensor from which the non-magnetic material was removed and including a top shield element, a first side shield element on a first side of a synthetic anti-ferromagnet (SAF) structure and a second shield element on an opposite side of the SAF structure.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

depositing the non-magnetic material adjacent opposite sides of the SAF structure in a cross-track direction.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the monolithic shield element isolates the non-magnetic material in the middle region of the MR sensor from the ABS such that the monolithic shield is between the ABS and the non-magnetic material.

4. The method of claim 2 , wherein the monolithic shield is axially aligned with the non-magnetic material in a down-track direction and a cross-track direction.

5. The method of claim 2 , wherein the non-magnetic material is a material that can be selectively etched using at least one of fluorocarbon (CF 4 ), an oxygen-based plasma, and a wet etch solution.

6. The method of claim 2 , wherein the SAF structure is included within a sensor stack and the non-magnetic material is axially aligned with the SAF structure and not axially aligned with a free layer of the sensor stack.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the non-magnetic material is at least one of silicon dioxide (SiO 2 ), amorphous carbon, and copper.