Weldon Mark Hanson

Bit-Patterned Magnetic Recording: Theory, Media Fabrication, and Recording Performance

Bit-patterned media (BPM) for magnetic recording provides a route to thermally stable data recording at >1 Tb/in2 and circumvents many of the challenges associated with extending conventional granular media technology. Instead of recording a bit on an ensemble of random grains, BPM comprises a well-ordered array of lithographically patterned isolated magnetic islands, each of which stores 1 bit. Fabrication of BPM is viewed as the greatest challenge for its commercialization. In this paper, we describe a BPM fabrication method that combines rotary-stage e-beam lithography, directed self-assembly of block copolymers, self-aligned double patterning, nanoimprint lithography, and ion milling to generate BPM based on CoCrPt alloy materials at densities up to 1.6 Td/in2. This combination of novel fabrication technologies achieves feature sizes of <;10 nm, which is significantly smaller than what conventional nanofabrication methods used in semiconductor manufacturing can achieve. In contrast to earlier work that used hexagonal arrays of round islands, our latest approach creates BPM with rectangular bit cells, which are advantageous for the integration of BPM with existing hard disk drive technology. The advantages of rectangular bits are analyzed from a theoretical and modeling point of view, and system integration requirements, such as provision of servo patterns, implementation of write synchronization, and providing for a stable head-disk interface, are addressed in the context of experimental results. Optimization of magnetic alloy materials for thermal stability, writeability, and tight switching field distribution is discussed, and a new method for growing BPM islands from a specially patterned underlayer-referred to as templated growth-is presented. New recording results at 1.6 Td/in2 (roughly equivalent to 1.3 Tb/in2) demonstrate a raw error rate <;10-2, which is consistent with the recording system requirements of modern hard drives. Extendibility of BPM to higher densities and its eventual combination with energy-assisted recording are explored.

Noise Characterization in High-Areal Density Perpendicular and Shingled Magnetic Recording

In this paper, we present a technique of noise analysis for perpendicular and shingled magnetic recording that is variance centric, i.e., with analysis focused on noise power. Measured noise from a home track viewpoint is decomposed into electronic noise, transition noise, nontransition noise, and inter-track interference components. The separation of media noise into transition and nontransition noise components is accomplished by a variance deconvolution technique. Experimental noise analysis is shown for cases of track squeeze, adjacent track erasure, and read head offset. Potential capacity gains are also assessed for the case of electronic noise improvement.

Spinstand demonstration of areal density enhancement using two-dimensional magnetic recording (invited)

Exponential growth of the areal density has driven the magnetic recording industry for almost sixty years. But now areal density growth is slowing down, suggesting that current technologies are reaching their fundamental limit. The next generation of recording technologies, namely, energy-assisted writing and bit-patterned media, remains just over the horizon. Two-Dimensional Magnetic Recording (TDMR) is a promising new approach, enabling continued areal density growth with only modest changes to the heads and recording electronics. We demonstrate a first generation implementation of TDMR by using a dual-element read sensor to improve the recovery of data encoded by a conventional low-density parity-check (LDPC) channel. The signals are combined with a 2D equalizer into a single modified waveform that is decoded by a standard LDPC channel. Our detection hardware can perform simultaneous measurement of the pre- and post-combined error rate information, allowing one set of measurements to assess the absolute areal density capability of the TDMR system as well as the gain over a conventional shingled magnetic recording system with identical components. We discuss areal density measurements using this hardware and demonstrate gains exceeding five percent based on experimental dual reader components.

TMR Sensitive Equalization for Electronic Servoing in Array-Reader-Based Hard Disk Drives

To achieve enhanced recording density, hard disk drive industry is transitioning into array-reader-based magnetic recording (ARMR) technology, which provides an enhanced signal-to-noise ratio for data detection by exploiting the diversity in signal, interference, and noise provided by the multiple read-elements. A 2-D equalizer, which is the heart of ARMR signal processing, acts to electronically steer the array-reader to provide optimum signal pickup from the track to result in better error-rate performance. To realize this enhanced performance, the 2-D equalizer should be matched to the reader location on the track, which cannot be guaranteed in practice due to track misregistration (TMR) arising from the servo control system. To mitigate this, we present an electronic servoing scheme that estimates the location of the dual-reader on a per-fragment basis and uses this to transform the reference equalizer to a new equalizer that is matched to the estimated location, hence, the name TMR sensitive equalization. Performance evaluation done ~1 Tb/in2 shows that the proposed approach significantly improves read performance in the presence of large read-/write-TMR even without requiring additional adaptation cycles for the 2-D equalizer.