Patent ID: 7019948

Claim:
A thin film magnetic head comprising a reading element including a magnetoresistive effective film, a pair of magnetic domain-controlling films and a pair of electrode films, said magnetoresistive effective film responding commensurate with an external magnetic field, said magnetic domain-controlling films being provided on both sides of said magnetoresistive effective film in a track width direction, respectively, so that the depth of said magnetic domain-controlling films is set equal to the depth of said magnetoresistive effective film in a depth direction perpendicular to said track width direction, said electrode films being provided on said magnetic domain-controlling films so as to have elongated portions, respectively, beyond a region where the depth of said magnetic domain-controlling films is set equal to the depth of said magnetoresistive effective film, wherein said elongated portions of said electrode films include inclined portions inclined outward from ends of side edge portions of said elongated portions, respectively; and wherein the relation of(H 2 /H 1 )≧2 is satisfied, provided that the depth of said magnetoresistive effective film is denoted by H 1 and a depth of the side edge portions of said elongated portions is denoted by H 2 .