Patent ID: 7336442
Filing Date: 2008-02-26
Classification: G11B

Abstract:
1. A method of manufacturing magnetic heads, each of the magnetic heads comprising: a medium facing surface that faces toward a recording medium; a coil that generates a magnetic field corresponding to data to be written on the recording medium; and a pole layer that incorporates a track width defining portion having an end face located in the medium facing surface, allows a magnetic flux corresponding to the field generated by the coil to pass therethrough, and generates a write magnetic field for writing the data on the recording medium, the method comprising the steps of: fabricating a magnetic head substructure by forming a plurality of sets of the pole layer and the coil on a substrate so that a plurality of rows of pre-head portions that will be the respective magnetic heads later are aligned in the substructure; and fabricating the magnetic heads by separating the pre-head portions from one another through cutting the substructure, wherein: the step of fabricating the magnetic heads includes the step of forming the medium facing surfaces by polishing a surface formed by cutting the substructure; the step of fabricating the substructure includes the step of forming first and second indicators that are located in such regions that portions of the first and second indicators are exposed in the medium facing surfaces when the medium facing surfaces are formed, the first and second indicators indicating a target location of the medium facing surfaces that is a location at which the medium facing surfaces are to be formed; and widths of the first and second indicators are equal at the target location of the medium facing surfaces, and one of the widths of the first and second indicators decreases while the other increases with shifts in position along a direction orthogonal to the medium facing surfaces.