Patent ID: 8503132

Claim:
A head gimbal assembly comprising: a head slider having a head element part for reading and/or writing data between the head element part and a magnetic disc; and a suspension on which the head slider is mounted; wherein the head slider includes a plurality of first bonding pads of a first thickness with respect to a side surface of said head slider; the suspension includes conductive leads which have a plurality of second bonding pads of said first thickness on one end thereof, wherein the second bonding pads are separated from said first bonding pads by a gap that is less than said first thickness and are bonded to the first bonding pads by a conductive bonding material wherein the leads are arranged in a state that the bonding surface of the second bonding pads extends to a position which faces a back surface of the head slider; and the first bonding pads are formed on a side surface of the head slider with end peripheries of the first bonding pads contacting an end periphery of the side surface which abuts the back surface of the head slider, the back surface of the head slider being a side opposite an air bearing surface side of the head slider such that said gap between the first bonding pads and the second bonding pads are less than said thickness of the first bonding pads, such that a bottom surface of each of said first bonding pads is above and separated by a vertical gap from a top surface of each of said second bonding pads.