Patent ID: 8159782

Claim:
A thin film magnetic head comprising a playback element disposed between a lower shield layer and an upper shield layer, a recording element laminated on the upper shield layer, a heating element which is disposed below a coil layer serving as a part of the recording element and which generates heat during energization so as to allow at least one of the playback element and the recording element to protrude toward a side closest to a recording medium through thermal expansion, and a pair of electrode leads of the heating element, wherein the heating element is composed of a heat element pattern in a meandering shape, wherein the pair of electrode leads comprises: overlapping regions which are in contact with rear ends of the heating element in a height direction and which overlap with the upper shield layer in a lamination direction; and heat dissipation regions extending from the overlapping regions in the height direction and a track width direction, wherein a width of the overlapping regions of the pair of electrode leads in the track width direction is wider than a width of the heat element pattern of the heating element.