The Influence of Bit Patterned Medium Design and Imperfections on Magnetoresistive Playback

Magnetoresistive playback off bit patterned magnetic recording media is studied. Three playback configurations are compared: not shielded sensors, shielded sensors commonly used in magnetic recording systems, and shielded differential sensors. Influence of patterned medium parameters including bit-filling ratio, bit shape, bit position jitter, bit-size variation on the playback signal is studied. Playback signal amplitude, D50, and signal-to-noise ratio are used to compare different playback sensor configurations. It is found that in general, shielded differential readers offer superior performance as compared to both shielded single sensor readers and not shielded readers.