Patent ID: 6920016

Claim:
A thin film magnetic head comprising head element portion, an island-like center rail and an air inflow end rail, the head element portion including a write head element and a read head element provided over a substrate through a base alumina, a disk-facing surface side including surfaces of the substrate and the head element portion, the island-like center rail protruding from a deep groove surface arranged at a center of an air outflow end, the air inflow end rail protruding from the deep groove surface arranged at an air inflow end, the island-like center rail including a shallow groove surface protruding with a predetermined recession from the deep groove surface, and an air bearing surface protruding with a predetermined recession from the shallow groove surface, wherein the air bearing surface of the island-like center rail is formed within a surface including the head element portion except for the substrate, and wherein at least one super shallow groove surface is provided between the air bearing surface and the shallow groove surface, the super shallow groove surface having a recession from the air bearing surface smaller than a recession to the shallow groove surface.