Thin-film magnetic head and method of manufacturing same, and magnetoresistive device

摘要

It is an object of the invention to prevent a short circuit between a shield layer and a magnetoresistive element or a conductive layer connected thereto. A thin-film magnetic head comprises a reproducing head and a recording head. The reproducing head includes: an MR element; a bottom shield layer and a top shield layer for shielding the MR element; a first conductive layer connected to the MR element; a bottom shield gap film placed between the bottom shield layer and the MR element and the conductive layer; a top shield gap film placed between the top shield layer and the MR element and the conductive layer; and a second conductive layer connected to the first conductive layer through a contact hole formed in the top shield gap film. The contact hole provided for connecting the first conductive layer to the second conductive layer is formed after a first layer of the top shield layer is formed on the top shield gap film.