A magnetic head includes a GMR read head that is protected from
electrostatic discharge (ESD) on a slider by a silicon germanium (SiGe)
integrated circuit device. In a preferred embodiment the SiGe circuit
device includes one or more silicon germanium heterojunction bipolar
transistors (SiGe HBT) or silicon germanium carbon heterojunction bipolar
transistors (SiGeC HBT) that is electrically connected across the
electrical leads of the GMR read head. Particular electrical connection
configurations with the SiGe circuit devices include diodic modes, npn
modes, series cascade modes and two stage ESD network configurations. The
silicon chip may be sandwiched between the slider body and the read/write
head or the read/write head may be sandwiched between the slider body and
the silicon chip.
