Patent ID: 8514516

Claim:
A thin-film magnetic head comprising: a main magnetic pole layer having a magnetic pole end face on a side of a medium-opposing surface that opposes a recording medium; a write shield layer having a write shield end face disposed in the medium-opposing surface; a gap layer formed between the main magnetic pole layer and write shield layer; a thin-film coil wound around any of the main magnetic pole layer, the write shield layer or a shield magnetic layer connected to the main magnetic pole layer, wherein the main magnetic pole layer, the write shield layer, the gap layer and the thin-film coil are laminated on a substrate; and a hard guard frame layer surrounding an equidistant coil part from outside and being in direct contact with almost a whole outside side surface defining an outer shape of the equidistant coil part, the outside side surface extending in a direction parallel to the medium-opposing surface, wherein a part of the thin-film coil disposed at a position equidistant from the substrate is the equidistant coil part.