Patent ID: 7924658

Claim:
A manufacturing method of a heat-assisted magnetic recording head in which a light source unit including: a unit substrate having a joining surface; and a light source which is provided on a source-installation surface of said unit substrate and whose surface including an light-emission center is positioned on the joining surface side, is joined to a slider, said slider including: a slider substrate having an opposed-to-medium surface; and a head part formed on an element-integration surface of said slider substrate, said head part including: a write head element for writing data on a magnetic recording medium; and a waveguide for guiding an incident light to the opposed-to-medium surface side, an end of said waveguide on the opposite side to the opposed-to-medium surface reaching an end surface of said head part on the opposite side to the opposed-to-medium surface, and the end of said waveguide having an incident center; the manufacturing method comprising the steps of: providing at least one marker on the end surface of said head part on the opposite side to the opposed-to-medium surface, said at least one marker being set so that a distance from said incident center of said waveguide to an end of said at least one marker on the opposite side to the element-integration surface in a direction perpendicular to the element-integration surface is substantially equal to a distance from said light-emission center of said light source to an end surface of said light source on the opposite side to the source-installation surface; and moving said light source unit and said slider relatively to each other while keeping the joining surface of said unit substrate in surface contact with an end surface of said slider substrate on the opposite side to the opposed-to-medium surface, and setting relative positions of said light source unit and said slider in a direction perpendicular to the element-integration surface to be positions in which an end of said at least one marker on the opposite side to the element-integration surface coincides with, or is at a distance within an acceptable range from, an edge of the surface including said light-emission center of said light source.