the fabrication of the second afm elements then perform a no externally applied field annealing step at a high temperature to increase the h ex of the second afm element to full strength whereby the stability of the first afm element is enhanced or increases its h ex if there were a decrease during the low magnetic field annealing step application_number US 41524799 A description for dsmr and svmr recording head applications a second afm element is needed to pin a second mr layer deposited later in a fabrication process in a preferred direction dsmr or the free sensing layer along the longitudinal direction svmr if an exchange coupling scheme is employed the conditions for the formation of the second afm element above the first afm element should be chosen so no degradation decrease of exchange magnetic field h ex or rotation of easy axis occurs in the first afm element which was formed previously this invention introduces a new thermal annealing method to form or reset the second afm element without affecting the first afm element whether or the first and second afm elements are made from either the same material or are made from different materials fig1 a shows a first stage of manufacture of a dsmr device 10 starting with a first mr stripe mr1 as usual the device 10 is formed on a planar substrate sub upon which a planar undercoat layer ul has been formed covered in turn by a planar magnetic shielding layer sh on which a planar dielectric layer d1 is formed then a first mr stripe mr1 is formed on the surface of the dielectric layer d1 in the conventional manner first mr stripe mr1 is preferably formed of permalloy nife nickel iron or cofe or conife with outwardly tapered.