Patent ID: 7158345

Claim:
A thin-film magnetic head comprising: a lower core layer; a recording core formed on the lower core layer and exposed at a face surface that faces a recording medium, the recording core comprising a lower pole layer, a gap layer, and an upper pole layer sequentially arranged in that order; an upper core layer magnetically coupled to the upper pole layer; and a first coil layer and a second coil layer overlying the first coil layer, the first and second coil layers inducing a recording magnetic field to the lower core layer, the recording core, and the upper core layer, wherein a tip surface of the upper core layer contacts the upper pole layer and is located at a setback distance from the face surface in a height direction, wherein the height direction is a direction generally perpendicular to the face surface, and the tip surface is a curved surface, both at a portion of the tip surface in contact with the upper pole layer and at both sides in the track width direction of the portion of the tip surface in contact with the upper pole layer, such that the setback distance gradually increases in a track width direction from a point where the tip surface contacts the upper pole layer, wherein the track width direction is a direction generally parallel to the face surface; and wherein the recording core further comprises: a front region which extends from the face surface in the height direction and has a uniform width in the track width direction; and a back region which extends from the front region in the height direction and in which a width of the back region in the track width direction gradually increases in the height direction.