Patent ID: 7249407

Claim:
A method of manufacturing a magnetic head which includes a first magnetic layer and a second magnetic layer that are opposite to each other in a film thicknesswise direction at a surface facing a recording medium with a gap layer interposed therebetween, and a coil layer that applies a recording magnetic field to the first magnetic layer and the second magnetic layer, the method comprising the steps of: (a) forming a conductive coil base layer on a conductive contact layer, the conductive coil base layer being formed on the first magnetic layer with the gap layer interposed therebetween, the conductive contact layer being exposed onto an insulating material layer burying the periphery of the first magnetic layer, at least a surface layer of the coil base layer being formed of one or two or more alloys selected from a group consisting of Au, Ru, and Rh; (b) forming a coil layer on a predetermined region of the coil base layer; (c) covering the coil layer with a coil insulating layer; (d) forming a conductive base layer on the gap layer and the coil insulating layer by using a sputtering method so as to plate the second magnetic layer on the conductive base layer, the gap layer being exposed more toward the facing surface than the coil insulating layer; and (e) plating a conductive layer on the coil base layer remaining on the contact layer.