Patent ID: 8767344

Claim:
A magnetic head, comprising: a main pole having a leading side and a trailing side relative to a downtrack direction, wherein the downtrack direction is in a direction of medium travel relative to the main pole; a side gap layer positioned adjacent to the main pole in a crosstrack direction, wherein the crosstrack direction is perpendicular to the downtrack direction, and wherein the side gap layer is positioned on both sides of a flared portion of the main pole in the crosstrack direction, the flared portion of the main pole being positioned away from an air bearing surface of the main pole in an element height direction; and a side shield layer positioned adjacent the side gap layer in a crosstrack direction, wherein the side gap layer is characterized as having a first groove therein in the crosstrack direction, the side shield layer being positioned in the first groove, wherein the side gap layer is characterized by having a main pole groove therein in the downtrack direction, the main pole being positioned in the main pole groove, wherein the side shield layer is characterized by having a second groove therein in the downtrack direction, the side gap layer being positioned in the second groove, wherein the side gap layer is non-conformal in shape, and wherein a position of the side shield layer relative to a position of the main pole is characterized as being self-aligned due to positioning of the main pole groove within the second groove at an intersection thereof with the first groove.