Patent ID: 6987645

Claim:
A thin-film magnetic head comprising: a medium facing surface that faces toward a recording medium; a first pole layer and a second pole layer that include magnetic pole portions opposed to each other and located in regions of the pole layers on a side of the medium facing surface; a gap layer provided between the pole portion of the first pole layer and the pole portion of the second pole layer; a thin-film coil wound in a helical manner around at least one of the first and second pole layers and insulated from the first and second pole layers; and a substrate, wherein: the first and second pole layers, the gap layer and the thin-film coil are stacked on the substrate, and the first pole layer is located closer to the substrate than the second pole layer; the thin-film coil includes: a plurality of inner conductor portions disposed side by side between the first and second pole layers and extending in a direction intersecting a direction orthogonal to the medium facing surface; a plurality of outer conductor portions disposed on a side opposite to the inner conductor portions, the first or second pole layer being disposed between the inner conductor portions and the outer conductor portions, the outer conductor portions extending in the direction intersecting the direction orthogonal to the medium facing surface; and a plurality of connecting portions for connecting the inner conductor portions to the outer conductor portions; the thin-film magnetic head further comprises an insulating film disposed between adjacent ones of the inner conductor portions; and a space between adjacent ones of the inner conductor portions is equal to a thickness of the insulating film, and smaller than or equal to a minimum distance between the first pole layer and bottoms of the inner conductor portions.