Patent ID: 8163186

Claim:
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, the pole layer allowing a magnetic flux corresponding to the magnetic field generated by the coil to pass therethrough and generating a write magnetic field for writing the data on the recording medium, the method comprising the steps of: fabricating a substructure for the magnetic heads by forming a plurality of sets of the pole layer and the coil in a substrate, wherein 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 substructure includes the step of forming a plurality of magnetic layers, each of the plurality of magnetic layers including a pole-layer corresponding portion, an indicator, and a coupling portion, the pole-layer corresponding portion being intended to later become the pole layer, the indicator serving as a reference for indicating a location of a region in which the medium facing surface is to be formed for a corresponding one of the magnetic heads, the coupling portion coupling the pole-layer corresponding portion and the indicator to each other, and in the region in which the medium facing surface is to be formed, the indicator is in non-contact with the pole-layer corresponding portion.