Patent ID: 7173792

Claim:
A thin-film magnetic head comprising: a medium facing surface that faces toward a recording medium; a first pole layer and a second pole layer including magnetic pole portions that are opposed to each other and located in regions of the pole layers on a side of the medium facing surface; a coupling section that is located away from the medium facing surface, includes at least one of a portion of the first pole layer and a portion of the second pole layer, and magnetically couples the first and second pole layers to each other; a gap layer provided between the pole portion of the first pole layer and the pole portion of the second pole layer; a thin-film coil wound around the coupling section. a part of the coil being disposed between the first and second pole layers and insulated from the first and second pole layers; a cooling layer for cooling the first pole layer and the thin-film coil; and a substrate, wherein: the first and second pole layers, the gap layer, the thin-film coil and the cooling layer are stacked on the substrate, and the first pole layer is located closer to the substrate than the second pole layer; the first pole layer and the cooling layer are made of an identical magnetic material; each of the first pole layer and the cooling layer has a coil facing portion that faces toward one of surfaces of the thin-film coil closer to the substrate; the coil facing portion of the cooling layer is located farther from the medium facing surface than the coil facing portion of the first pole layer; and the coil facing portion of the first pole layer is separated from the coil facing portion of the cooling layer with a gap, the thin-film magnetic head further comprising a first insulating portion made of an insulating material and disposed between the first pole layer and the thin-film coil, and a second insulating portion made of an insulating material and disposed between the cooling layer and the thin-film coil, wherein the first insulating portion is thicker than the second insulating portion.