Due to a weaker exchange coupling, the coercivity in permalloy/Cr82Al18 bilayers of thicknesses tFM and tAF, respectively, has been found to vary as 1/tFM3/2 at room temperature, a behavior previously only observed at low temperatures. At room temperature, the exchange field decreases when tAF is less than 40 nm and vanishes at 25 nm. Switching in wedged-permalloy/Cr82Al18 bilayers consists of two macroscopic domains with one domain wall moving along the wedge direction. © 2000 American Institute of Physics.