Patent ID: 7779535

Claim:
A manufacturing method of a thin-film magnetic head wafer comprising steps of: forming, on a lower electrode layer, a magnetoresistive effect multilayer having a non-magnetic intermediate layer, said non-magnetic intermediate layer being sandwiched between a pinned layer and a free layer, by etching with a photoresist pattern as masks; depositing an insulating film on said lower electrode layer and a side surface of said magnetoresistive effect multilayer by a sputtering, during rotating a wafer substrate on which said photoresist pattern lies around a center axis extending in a direction perpendicular to an element-formed surface of said wafer substrate, said center axis tilted with a predetermined angle in relation to a normal line to a surface of a sputtering target; etching said insulating film by a means including an ion beam etching or a reverse sputtering to form an insulating layer having a concave portion near the side surface of said magnetoresistive effect multilayer; and forming an upper electrode layer on said insulating layer including said concave portion and said magnetoresistive effect multilayer.