Patent ID: 7779534

Claim:
A method of manufacturing a thin film magnetic head comprising: a thin film coil for generating a magnetic flux; and a magnetic pole layer which extends rearward from a recording-medium-facing surface facing a recording medium traveling in a medium travel direction and emits the magnetic flux generated by the thin film coil toward the recording medium, wherein the method comprises a step of forming the magnetic pole layer so as to include: a uniform width portion having uniform width that specifies recording track width of the recording medium, extending from the recording-medium-facing surface, and including an exposed surface exposed on the recording-medium-facing surface; and a wide portion coupled to the rear end of the uniform width portion, extending with width larger than the uniform width, and including widened end surfaces along he increased width, and by forming the uniform portion and the wide potion in different processes, height H 2 of the widened end surface in the wide portion is set to be smaller than height H 1 of the exposed surface in the uniform width portion (H 2 <H 1 ), wherein the step of forming the magnetic pole layer further includes: a first step of pattern-forming a first magnetic pole layer portion as a part of the magnetic pole layer so as to extend rearward from a width increase position from which the width of the magnetic pole layer increases from the uniform width portion to the wide portion and having width corresponding to width of the wide portion; a second step of forming a precursor magnetic pole layer pattern so as to extend rearward from a portion on the front side of the width increase position via the width increase position onto the first magnetic pole layer portion, and to have width corresponding to the width of the uniform width portion in a portion at least on the front side of the width increase portion; and a third step of forming a second magnetic pole layer portion as another part of the magnetic pole layer by polishing the precursor magnetic pole layer pattern until an end surface on the side of the medium travel direction becomes flat as a whole, thereby forming the magnetic pole layer so as to include the first and second magnetic pole layer portions, the width increase position is specified on the basis of the first magnetic pole layer portion, and the uniform width portion is specified on the basis of the second magnetic pole layer portion.