Patent ID: 6984333

Claim:
A method of manufacturing a thin film magnetic head, the thin film magnetic head comprising: a thin film coil generating magnetic flux, and a pole layer comprising a laminate including a main pole layer having a plane shape including a uniform width region with a uniform width determining a recording track width of a recording medium and a widening width region with a larger width than the uniform width region, and having an end surface exposed to a recording-medium-facing surface facing the recording medium, an auxiliary pole layer being disposed so as to face a part of the main pole layer, and a non-magnetic layer being disposed in a region where the main pole layer and the auxiliary pole layer face each other so as to be sandwiched between these two layers, and the pole layer emitting the magnetic flux generated in the thin film coil to the recording medium, the method comprising: forming a first mask layer to become a mask determining the widening width region; forming a second mask layer to become a mask determining the uniform width region, wherein the first mask layer and the second mask layer are independently formed through separate steps; and completing formation of the pole layer through a series of patterning steps for at least two of the main pole layer, the auxiliary pole layer and the non-magnetic layer by use of the first mask layer and the second mask layer.