Patent ID: 6975487

Claim:
A magnetic head comprising: a magnetic head slider having a slider body that flies with one surface opposing a magnetic recording medium, the magnetic recording medium being rotatively driven; a magnetic core for recording or reproducing magnetic information being provided on the magnetic recording medium opposing surface of the slider body; a center pad, side pads, a center rail and side rails for levitating the slider body being provided on the recording medium opposing surface of the slider body; and an upstream side in the rotational direction of the magnetic recording medium being defined as a leading side in the slider body, while a downstream side in the rotational direction being defined as a trailing side in the slider body; and wherein the magnetic core is provided on the center pad, the center pad being formed at the center of an end portion on the trailing side of the recording medium opposing surface of the slider body, the side pads are formed at both ends in the width direction at the positions closer to the leading side of the slider body than the center pad is, a total value of the areas of the recording medium opposing surfaces of both side pads is larger than the area of the recording medium opposing surface of the center pad, and each of the side pads has, at least on the leading side of the slider body, a front stepped surface that is lower than the remaining portion of the side pad.