Patent ID: 8495812

Claim:
A method of manufacturing a magnetic head slider, including a multi-layer forming step for forming a magnetic head section in a multi-layered manner, the magnetic head section including a read element and/or a write element and a magnetic shield for magnetically shielding the read element and/or the write element, the magnetic head slider being manufactured by being cut off from a multi-layered body having the magnetic head section, the method comprising: after the multi-layer forming step, a shield end removing step for removing end portions in a width direction of the magnetic shield located on a flying surface side of the magnetic head slider, and following the multi-layer forming step, a bar block cut-off step for cutting off a bar block having a plurality of magnetic head sliders from the multi-layered body; a slider cutting step for cutting the bar block into respective magnetic head sliders, wherein the shield end removing step is performed after the bar block cut-off step; and before or after the slider cutting step, an ABS forming step for forming an air bearing surface in a predetermined shape on the flying surface of the magnetic head slider, wherein the shield end removing step is performed as a part of the ABS forming step, and wherein the shield end removing step includes: a DLC step for forming a diamond-like carbon layer on the flying surface; a mask forming step for forming, on the flying surface of the magnetic head slider, a mask covering the read element and/or the write element and a center portion of the magnetic shield except for the end portions in the width direction thereof; and a removing step for removing a portion uncovered by the mask to a predetermined depth from the flying surface side; and wherein the shield end removing step includes: after the removing step, a second DLC forming step for forming a diamond-like carbon layer on the flying surface; and after the second DLC forming step, a DLC removing step for removing all of the diamond-like carbon lay formed on the flying surface, after performing a predetermined process on the flying surface.