Patent ID: 8792209

Claim:
A magnetic head for perpendicular magnetic recording, comprising: a medium facing surface facing a recording medium; a coil producing a magnetic field corresponding to data to be written on the recording medium; a main pole having an end face located in the medium facing surface, the main pole allowing a magnetic flux that corresponds to the magnetic field produced by the coil to pass, and producing a write magnetic field for writing the data on the recording medium by means of a perpendicular magnetic recording system; a write shield made of a magnetic material and having an end face located in the medium facing surface; a gap part made of a nonmagnetic material and interposed between the main pole and the write shield; and a return path section made of a magnetic material and connecting the write shield and part of the main pole away from the medium facing surface to each other, wherein the end face of the write shield includes a first end face portion located on a front side in a direction of travel of the recording medium relative to the end face of the main pole, the return path section includes a first yoke layer located on the front side in the direction of travel of the recording medium relative to the main pole, and a first coupling part coupling the main pole and the first yoke layer to each other, the first coupling part includes a plurality of magnetic path portions that separate the magnetic flux into a plurality of fluxes and allow the fluxes to pass therethrough in parallel, and the coil includes a plurality of winding portions each of which is disposed around a different one of the plurality of magnetic path portions, the plurality of magnetic path portions and the plurality of winding portions being in a same plane perpendicular to the direction of travel of the recording medium.