Patent ID: 7061716

Claim:
A thin-film magnetic head comprising: a medium facing surface that faces toward a recording medium; first and second pole layers that include magnetic pole portions opposed to each other and located in regions of the pole layers on a side of the medium facing surface; a coupling portion for establishing magnetic coupling between the first pole layer and the second pole layer, the coupling portion being located away from the medium facing surface and including at least either one of a part of the first pole layer and a part of the second pole layer; a gap layer interposed between the magnetic pole portion of the first pole layer and the magnetic pole portion of the second pole layer; and a thin-film coil disposed around the coupling portion, at least part of the thin-film coil being interposed between the first and second pole layers and insulated from the first and second pole layers, wherein: the thin-film coil has a flat conductive layer of two or less turns; the coupling portion has an end face facing toward the medium facing surface, the end face including a curved surface convex toward the medium facing surface; the conductive layer includes a portion located between the end face of the coupling portion and the medium facing surface; and the portion located between the end face of the coupling portion and the medium facing surface has a minimum width of the conductive layer at a position on a virtual line connecting the end face of the coupling portion and the medium facing surface in the shortest distance, and increases in width with distance from the virtual line.