Patent ID: 6882503

Claim:
A thin-film magnetic head comprising: a recording head section having a recording head and a first medium facing surface that faces toward a recording medium; and a reproducing head section having a reproducing head and a second medium facing surface that faces toward the recording medium, wherein: the recording head section and the reproducing head section are bonded to each other so that the first medium facing surface and the second medium facing surface are continuous; the recording head section includes a recording head section body for accommodating the recording head, the recording head section body having the first medium facing surface and a back surface located on the opposite side from the first medium facing surface; the recording head has an induction-type electromagnetic transducer, and an insulating layer having a bottom surface exposed in the back surface and a top surface opposite to the bottom surface; the induction-type electromagnetic transducer has: a thin-film coil; first and second pole portion layers opposed to each other and disposed near the first medium facing surface; a magnetic-path-forming part that is disposed so as to surround a part of the thin-film coil and couples the first pole portion layer and the second pole portion layer to each other; and a gap part provided between the first and second pole portion layers; the thin-film coil and the magnetic-path-forming part are disposed above the top surface of the insulating layer; the first and second pole portion layers are disposed above the thin-film coil and exposed in the first medium facing surface; and the thin-film coil is located in a plane substantially parallel to the first medium facing surface.