Patent ID: 7440229

Claim:
A thin-film magnetic head having a laminated construction comprising a main pole layer having a magnetic pole tip on a side of a medium-opposing surface opposing a recording medium, a write shield layer opposing said magnetic pole tip forming a recording gap layer, on the side of said medium-opposing surface, and a thin-film coil wound around at least a portion of said write shield layer, and comprising an upper yoke pole layer having a width in a direction along the medium-opposing surface that is larger than a width of said main pole layer in the direction along the medium-opposing surface, wherein said upper yoke pole layer is joined to the side of said main pole layer which is near said thin-film coil, wherein the upper yoke pole layer is planar across an upper surface, wherein said write shield layer has a shield tip which opposes said magnetic pole tip on said medium-opposing surface, and formed with a same surface height as said upper yoke pole layer.