Patent ID: 7542244

Claim:
A magnetic head comprising: a write head having a main pole and an auxiliary pole; and a read head having a lower reader shield, an upper reader shield, and a read element located between said lower reader shield and said upper reader shield; wherein b>a and b≧c are satisfied where, on an air-bearing surface, a denotes a cross-track width of said auxiliary pole, b denotes a cross-track width of said upper reader shield, and c denotes a cross-track width of said lower reader shield, wherein d 1 ≦t 1 and d 2 ≦t 2 are satisfied where d 1 denotes a positional difference between edges of said auxiliary pole and upper reader shield on the air-bearing surface in the cross-track direction, d 2 denotes a positional difference between edges of said upper reader shield and lower reader shield on the air-bearing surface in the cross-track direction, t 1 denotes the film thickness of said auxiliary pole or upper reader shield, whichever of magnetic layers constituting said auxiliary pole and said upper reader is larger in cross-track width, and t 2 denotes the film thickness of said upper reader shield or lower reader shield, whichever is larger in cross-track width.