Patent ID: 7472471

Claim:
A method of manufacturing a magnetic head for perpendicular magnetic recording, the magnetic head comprising: a medium facing surface that faces toward a recording medium; a coil for generating a magnetic field corresponding to data to be written on the recording medium; a pole layer having an end face located in the medium facing surface, allowing a magnetic flux corresponding to the field generated by the coil to pass therethrough, and generating a write magnetic field for writing the data on the recording medium through the use of a perpendicular magnetic recording system; and a pole-layer-encasing layer made of a nonmagnetic material and having a groove that opens in a top surface of the encasing layer and accommodates the pole layer, the method comprising the steps of: forming a nonmagnetic layer that will be formed into the encasing layer by forming the groove therein later; forming a polishing stopper layer on a top surface of the nonmagnetic layer, the polishing stopper layer being made of a nonmagnetic conductive material and having a penetrating opening with a shape corresponding to a plane geometry of the pole layer, the polishing stopper layer indicating a level at which polishing to be performed later is stopped; forming the groove in the nonmagnetic layer by selectively etching a portion of the nonmagnetic layer exposed from the opening of the polishing stopper layer, so that the nonmagnetic layer is formed into the encasing layer; forming a magnetic layer to be the pole layer such that the groove is filled and a top surface of the magnetic layer is located higher than a top surface of the polishing stopper layer; forming a coating layer so as to cover the magnetic layer and the polishing stopper layer; polishing the coating layer and the magnetic layer until the polishing stopper layer is exposed, so that the magnetic layer is formed into the pole layer; and forming the coil.