Patent ID: 6731457
Filing Date: 2004-05-04
Classification: G11B

Abstract:
A thin-film magnetic head comprising:a lower core layer; a lower magnetic pole layer formed separately on the lower core layer, the lower magnetic pole layer extending from a face opposing a recording medium by a predetermined length in a height direction, a back end of the lower magnetic pole layer forming a step on an upper face of the lower core layer; a nonmagnetic gap layer extending from a face opposing the recording medium on the lower magnetic pole layer; an upper core layer in contact with the upper face of the gap layer; and a coil layer lying behind the back end of the lower magnetic pole layer in the height direction, the coil layer being covered with a coil-insulating layer and inducing a recording magnetic field in the lower core layer and the upper core layer; wherein the upper core layer in contact with the gap layer has a track width Tw at an exposed face opposing a recording medium, and the upper core layer extends on the coil-insulating layer, wherein the gap layer has the track width Tw, and the lower magnetic pole layer has the track width Tw at a position in contact with the gap layer, wherein the lower magnetic pole layer is formed independently of the lower core layer and has a base portion and a protruding portion extending toward the upper core layer, the width of the protruding portion is smaller than that of the base portion, and the upper face of the protruding portion is in contact with the gap layer, wherein the lower magnetic pole layer has sloping faces extending from the bottom corners of the protruding portion toward directions departing from the upper core layer at both sides in the track width direction, and wherein the lower core layer has sloping upper faces continuing from the sloping faces of the lower magnetic pole layer.