Perspectives for 10 terabits/in2 magnetic recording

Magnetic recording technology has come a long way, since the introduction of the first hard disk drives (HDD) in 1956. The areal density has grown by a factor of 200 million times and the HDD has stayed as a main candidate for mass storage of information. In order to maintain its lead over other competing technologies, HDD industry continues to invent several technologies. Having introduced perpendicular recording technology in the last 5 years, the industry is looking at introducing bit-patterned media or heat-assisted magnetic recording in the next five years. The researchers--looking at a longer term--are investigating 10 Tbits/in2 as the next major milestone. The issues and probable candidates for 10 Tbits/in2 magnetic recording technology are described from a material perspective.     

Recording characteristics of electroless-plated perpendicular media for flexible disks

The read/write characteristics of electroless-plated perpendicular magnetic recording media for flexible disks were studied using commercial VHS and 8-mm VTR ring heads. Excellent results were shown for a medium composed of Co-Ni-Re-P plated on a non-magnetic electroless-plated Ni-P layer. A Ni-P underlayer of only 500 Å greatly improved the read/write characteristics of the disk. Reproduced signals over 300 kFRPI were observed for a system using a VHS head, andD_{50} = 134kFRPI was obtained using an 8-mm head.     

Fabrication of Flyable Perpendicular Discrete Track Media

Discrete track media offers many potential recording advantages over conventional continuous media in hard disk drives. In this study, we present a novel fabrication process for discrete track perpendicular magnetic media via electron beam lithography, ion milling, and the use of a protective Al sacrificial layer. Physical characterization of the media confirms the process is able to produce patterned tracks with no damage to the media. Spin stand analysis verifies the disks are flyable and capable of recording sharp transitions without any degradation in the magnetic signal     

USE OF THIN SOLID FILMS AT HEAD/MAGNETIC MEDIA INTERFACES

The lubrication of head / disk interlaces in magnetic hard disk drives by physically processed thin films was investigated. Sputtered gold films showed no useful endurance as a protective / lubricating film. Ion-plated carbon films and hydrogenerated carbon films (i-carbon) were effective for preventing tribological damages in magnetic recording media, while amorphous carbon films (a-carbon) were ineffective. The longest durability was found for i-carbons. Raman scattering showed that i-carbons contained much sp³ component, and microindentation test signified that i-carbon films were twice as hard as amorphous carbon films. As a protective film, i-carbon seems very promising, but hard materials should be selected as heads to avoid quick wear of the head. Sufficient performance of i-carbon films may lead to application of thin solid lubricants to hard disk drives.     

A new W-shaped single-pole head and a high density flexible disk perpendicular magnetic recording system

A new single-pole head with no auxiliary pole was developed for perpendicular magnetic recording. The head is called WSP head (W-shaped Single Pole head) because the head has a W-shaped side core which contributes to increase the recording and reproducing sensitivitiy. The head field of the new head has the same distribusion as that of an auxiliary pole head[1]. The recording and reproducing sensitivity of the head is equal to or higher than that of a ring-type video head. The head eliminates mechanical problems which prevent its application in perpendicular magnetic recording because we can locate the head on one side of the recording medium. As a possible application of the WSP head, a 3 1/2-inch flexible disk recording system was constructed. A linear recording density of the flexible disk system was 65.5 kbits/inch. This density is equivalent to 8 times that of the existing high-density 3 1/2-inch micro-floppy and 11 times that of a 5 1/4-inch floppy disk. In termes of information storage, this density gives a 4 megabyte unformated capacity on one side of a 3 1/2-inch flexible disk. The overwrite signal-to-noise ratio was greater than 30 dB and the peakshift displacement was less than 10 % at the linear dinsity of 65.5 kbits/inch.     

Tunneling magnetoresistive heads for magnetic data storage

Spintronics is emerging to be a new form of nanotechnologies, which utilizes not only the charge but also spin degree of freedom of electrons. Spin-dependent tunneling transport is one of the many kinds of physical phenomena involving spintronics, which has already found industrial applications. In this paper, we first provide a brief review on the basic physics and materials for magnetic tunnel junctions, followed more importantly by a detailed coverage on the application of magnetic tunneling devices in magnetic data storage. The use of tunneling magnetoresistive reading heads has helped to maintain a fast growth of areal density, which is one of the key advantages of hard disk drives as compared to solid-state memories. This review is focused on the first commercial tunneling magnetoresistive heads in the industry at an areal density of 80 approximately 100 Gbit/in2 for both laptop and desktop Seagate hard disk drive products using longitudinal media. The first generation tunneling magnetoresistive products utilized a bottom stack of tunnel junctions and an abutted hard bias design. The output signal amplitude of these heads was 3 times larger than that of comparable giant magnetoresistive devices, resulting in a 0.6 decade bit error rate gain over the latter. This has enabled high component and drive yields. Due to the improved thermal dissipation of vertical geometry, the tunneling magnetoresistive head runs cooler with a better lifetime performance, and has demonstrated similar electrical-static-discharge robustness as the giant magnetoresistive devices. It has also demonstrated equivalent or better process and wafer yields compared to the latter. The tunneling magnetoresistive heads are proven to be a mature and capable reader technology. Using the same head design in conjunction with perpendicular recording media, an areal density of 274 Gbit/in2 has been demonstrated, and advanced tunneling magnetoresistive heads can reach 311 Gbit/in2. Today, the tunneling magnetoresistive heads have become a mainstream technology for the hard disk industry and will still be a technology of choice for future hard disk products.     

Properties, preparation, advances and limitations of materials andmedia for perpendicular recording

The trends in perpendicular magnetic recording research are discussed, with emphasis on clarifying the trend of research on recording media, their materials, and head materials. Among numerous proposed perpendicular recording media materials, barium ferrite powder and evaporated Co-Cr films seem to lead in practical applications, since their mass production seems to be very successful. There still exist crucial points in their development. However, improvements are continuously taking place. Other candidate perpendicular recording media for a device which has a ring head are also discussed. It is concluded that, for future high-density magnetic recording, utilizing fully the perpendicular component of media magnetization will furnish the key to success     

Analytic determination of overwrite capability in magnetic recording systems

Analytic design criteria are provided to determine if a digital magnetic recording system can overwrite under worst-case conditions. The worst-case condition is taken to be a bubble of reversed magnetization in an otherwise saturated medium, written by applying current to a stationary recording head. A leading and a trailing transition are formed, creating a large demagnetizing field opposing the head field. Although the leading transition is commonly thought to be unimportant in saturation writing, its demagnetizing field can significantly hamper the writing of the trailing transition. First, self-consistent numerical calculation shows the characteristics of the bubble and its associated fields. Then the bubble is approximated analytically by a biquadratic form, and the demagnetizing field at the bubble center is compared with the field necessary to saturate the medium. A rapid loss of overwrite ability with decreasing gap-length is demonstrated. The importance of including image fields for thin-film heads is discussed. Graphical representations are given for the minimum gap-length necessary for overwrite. A relation between media parameters, bit density, and magnetic energy/bit in commercial disk drives is discussed.     

Review of head-media coupling in magnetic recording

Recent advance of magnetic recording technology has resulted in tremendous increase in area densities. Several new components were developed: Thin film media, and thin film head in longitudinal recording; Single-layer media, double-layer media, and probe head in perpendicular recording. A variety of head and media combinations become possible, and each has a different degree of head-media coupling. The soft magnetic underlayer in double-layer perpendicular media has such a strong coupling with the head that the head and media must be treated as a single entity in the analysis. The evaluation of only a head or a medium without knowing its counterpart could be quite misleading. Optimization of head-media coupling to select the most suitable combination becomes a key factor in designing a high density recording system. We will review the recording and reproducing processes from both the theoretical and experimental aspects for all the head-media structures which have some practical interest.     

Data storage and retrieval using perpendicular media andmagnetoresistive read transducer

We have investigated magnetic recording on multilayer perpendicular media using a conventional peak detect channel and a commercial magnetoresistive recording head. A finite impulse response filter was used to equalize the impulse response from perpendicular media into a unipolar pulse. Equalized pulses had a PW₅₀ of 174 nm and a D₅₀ of 131 kfei. Without write precompensation, a linear density of 204 kbits per inch (kbpi) with a 3.3 ns error window margin and a data transfer rate of 75 Mbit/s was measured with an error rate of 4×10^-7. The signal waveform was stable and had good up-down amplitude symmetry     

5.25 inch floppy disk drive using perpendicular magnetic recording

5.25 inch high density perpendicular magnetic recording floppy disk drive has beer developed by employing new types of high saturation magnetization ring head, Co-Cr single layer medium with Ge underlayer, head slider with ellipsoidal surface configuration to assure intimate head to medium contact, and signal equalization. By these combination, recording density D50 of 145 kFCI, peakshift of 28 % at 100 kFCI, signal to noise ratio of 40.4 dB for cut-off frequency 4.25 MHz, overwrite signal to noise ratio of 27 dB, measured by writing signals at 48 kFCI over previously written 100 kFCI signals were obtained as typical recording characteristics. These results would indicate that floppy disk drive with 100 kFCI recording density has enough system margin by above-mentioned combination. In this paper, design and performance of newly developed floppy disk drive are described.     

Media for high density magnetic recording

Longitudinal recording is limited at high bit densities by recording demagnetization, self-demagnetization, and adjacent-bit demagnetization, which occur during the writing-demagnetization processes. To minimize these adverse effects it becomes necessary to resort to extreme scaling of the media parameters and their thickness, with the consequence of greatly increasing the difficulty of fabrication and the cost of such optimized media. Pure perpendicular recording circumvents these writing and demagnetization problems because of the strong head coupling of a single pole head with a double layer medium, positive interaction between adjacent bits, and low self-demagnetization at high bit densities. Therefore, it does not require any extreme scaling of the media magnetic parameters and their thickness. Of great interest, at least for the next several years, are the quasi-perpendicular particulate media which can support perpendicular magnetization. These include the isotropic, high-squareness media, and oriented perpendicular media employing particles with uniaxial crystalline or shape anisotropies. The attractiveness of these media derives from their excellent recording performance and from the fact that they preserve the existing head/media interface and they utilize existing coating facilities which should reflect favorably on their cost. In this paper the advantages and disadvantages of the various media under development for high density magnetic recording are compared, and predictions are made for their potential application in future systems.     

Exchange coupling and its applications in magnetic data storage

The continuing scaling of magnetic recording is facing more and more scientific and technological challenges because both the read sensor and recording bit are approaching sub-50 nm regime with the ever increasing areal density in hard disk drives. One of the key and indispensable elements for both high-sensitivity sensors and high-density media is the exchange bias between a ferromagnetic and an antiferromagnetic layer or the exchange coupling between two ferromagnets via a non-magnetic spacer. In the nanometer regime, the exchange coupling between ferromagnet and antiferromagnet or two ferromagnets through a conductive spacer is governed by the intergrain exchange interaction which has its origin in electron spins. Interlayer exchange coupling in multilayer or trilayer essentially originates from the quantum confinement effect. In this paper, we first review the physical origin and various theoretical models of the two types of exchange couplings, followed by a review of the applications of the exchange bias and interlayer exchange coupling in data storage with emphasis on the advanced read sensor and advanced media including perpendicular media and patterned media.     

Extremely high bit density recording with single-pole perpendicular head

Since perpendicular magnetic recording is free from recording demagnetization, high-density recording up to the intrinsic limit of a recording medium is possible. This prediction was verified experimentally in a flexible disk system using a single-pole head and a Co-Cr/Ni-Fe double-layer medium. We could record and reproduce signals up to 680KFRPI. The recording bit length at the highest density was of the order of the Co-Cr columnar diameter.     

Thin-film inductive heads for perpendicular recording

A modified thin-film magnetic head for perpendicular recording in rigid disk drives with improved read/write characteristics, especially at high areal bit densities, is presented. The head on which the modified design is based is described. It combines the advantages of single-pole heads and thin-film heads, writing with the sharp field edge of the leading pole and reading like a thin-film head. To increase the writing efficiency and improve the yield, the sequence of magnetic layers in the head is changed; the second layer of the four-layer head is embedded in the substrate, where it can be placed much closer to the pole tip of the first layer. The improved write capability depends mainly on the position of the embedded layer. In addition, there results an improved magnetic flux guidance from the embedded layer into the pole tip layer, providing the potential for a significant improvement in fabrication yield. The embedded-layer approach also allows a further increase in areal density. The results of read/write tests and the write-wide and read-narrow characteristics are presented     

Recording on perpendicular anisotropy media with ring heads

This paper reports experimental studies directed at the application of ring head structures to a perpendicular recording system. The media tested were sputter deposited films of CoCrTa alloys. Ferrite heads were studied, but the thin film head was chosen for evaluating roll-off, overwrite, and superposition. The data presented in the paper demonstrates the potential of high density recording with a single layer medium with perpendicular magnetic anistropy and a thin film head separated by 0.20 micrometers.     

Quantifying Corrosion Growths on Perpendicular Magnetic Recording Media

High media roughness associated with perpendicular recording introduces the phenomenon of widely separated single needle-like corrosion growths after temperature-humidity stress. Previous generation longitudinal recording media demonstrated clusters of corrosion growths around a central media defect, which were detectable by reflected light. However, because of the isolated nature of this new type of corrosion, traditional ellipsometry is no longer effective. As a result, we have developed a method for quantifying scattered isolated corrosion growths on perpendicular recording media disk surfaces, using existing optical surface technology. Our method can detect corrosion densities down to 5000 corrosion sites/mm$^{2}$, given corrosion size at least 0.3 $mu$m in length and 7 nm in height. The amount of corrosion reveals itself as an increase in laser light scatter across a disk surface referenced to its original prestress scatter. Scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy analysis of the corrosion growths verified that the scatter measurements correlate to physical properties such as density and size of corrosion needles.      

Growth of Magnetic Disk Drive Industry and Future

1. IntroductionThe growth of personal computers (PCs) and theexpansion of information networks, featured by theInternet, lead to information storage demand surprisingly. No data storage equipment other than magnetichard disk drives (known as HDD) is able to offer a costperformance that matches the requirements of growing digital network era.Areal recording density of the HDD has been improved more than 3 million times, since RAMAC firstshipped in 1957. During the periods, there were many…     

Recording performance characteristics of granular perpendicular media

The recording performance of CoCrPtO granular-type perpendicular media was examined with two types of perpendicular heads to demonstrate the importance of matching head and media designs in perpendicular recording. Shielded-pole heads with high write field gradients, field angles, and sufficient write field magnitude yielded superior writability and signal-to-noise ratio as compared to mono-pole heads. The recording performance dependences on head-to-medium spacing, interlayer thickness, and soft-underlayer (SUL) thickness were also weaker with the shielded-pole heads. In addition, the effect of stray fields on the SUL domain noise was investigated for a synthetic antiferromagnetically-coupled (SAF) SUL. A radial field close to the exchange field of the SAF SUL was found to induce domain noises that could potentially cause errors in recording systems.     

Magnetic recording configuration for densities beyond 1 Tb/in/sup 2/ and data rates beyond 1 Gb/s

A new magnetic recording system is evaluated that includes the single-pole head, a new medium design, and the soft underlayer of perpendicular recording. The proposed medium consists of perpendicular grains with anisotropy directions tilted optimally about 45/spl deg/ with respect to the perpendicular direction. Here, focus is on the tilt angle at 45/spl deg/ in the crosstrack direction, including a small but typical dispersion. The write pole consists of a tapered-neck single-pole head with a very small throat height that yields maximized write fields without increased edge track degradation. The advantages of tilted perpendicular recording are discussed using theoretical and numerical micromagnetic analyses. This design achieves a much higher signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) than conventional recording, because it is less sensitive to medium orientation distributions and, for the same thermal decay, can utilize media with much smaller grain sizes. The switching speed is much more rapid due to increased recording torque. Estimated recording limits for tilted perpendicular recording with a medium-jitter SNR of 17 dB are beyond densities of 1 Tb/in/sup 2/ and data rates of 1 Gb/s.