The Future of Magnetic Recording

Author(s):  
Roger Wood

Abstract Magnetic information storage technology has made astounding progress since its invention over a hundred years ago. For the last several years, storage packing densities in hard disk drives have doubled every year! This frantic pace is expected to soon slow because of the some very fundamental limits that are becoming increasingly evident in the technology. Conventional magnetic recording technology is expected to ultimately reach densities of several hundred Gigabits per square inch and data-rates of a few Gigabits/s (current products are ∼25 Gbit/sq.in. and over 0.5 Gbit/s). We examine the key limiting factors and then try to develop a consistent geometry and set of material properties that could support a density close to one Terabit per square inch. Finally we speculate about the external characteristics of a small hard disk drive that would store one Terabyte of information [1].

Author(s):  
Shaomin Xiong ◽  
Robert Smith ◽  
Chanh Nguyen ◽  
Youfeng Zhang ◽  
Yeoungchin Yoon

Abstract The air bearing surface is critical to the spacing control in current hard disk drives (HDDs). Thermal protrusions, including thermal flying height control (TFC) and writer coil protrusion, drive the reader/writer elements closer to the magnetic media. The spacing control actuation efficiency depends on the air bearing push back response after the TFC or writer protrudes. In the next generation hard disk drive technology, heat assisted magnetic recording (HAMR), laser induced protrusions further complicate the spacing control. The laser induced protrusions, such as the localized NFT protrusion and a wider change of the crown and camber, have very different dimensions and transient characteristics than the traditional TFC and writer protrusion. The dimension of the NFT protrusion is relatively smaller, and the transient is much faster than the TFC protrusion. However, it is found that the NFT protrusion is large enough to generate an air bearing push back effect, which changes the read and write spacing when the laser is powered on. To accurately control spacing in HAMR, this push back effect has to be taken into account.


2008 ◽  
Vol 131 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sung-Chang Lee ◽  
Soo-Youl Hong ◽  
Na-Young Kim ◽  
Joerg Ferber ◽  
Xiadong Che ◽  
...  

Model scratches of the size found in hard disk drives are produced under controlled conditions at a series of applied loads on both longitudinal magnetic recording (LMR) media and perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR) media using a diamond tip. The scratches are created at low speed, eliminating thermal considerations from the interpretation of the media response. Nanoindentations are produced as well. The scratches and indentations are characterized by atomic force microscope (AFM), magnetic force microscope (MFM), and also by the same magnetic reader and writer used in an integrated hard disk drive (HDD). A comparison of the response of PMR and LMR media shows the PMR media to have larger scratches and greater magnetic signal degradation than LMR media for a given scratch load. The extent of magnetic damage, as measured by MFM, is greater than the extent of surface mechanical damage, as measured by AFM. Analysis of scratches using the HDD reveals that the magnetic damage is irreversible and permanent damage in magnetic layer, which is confirmed by cross section transmission electron microscope image. The experiments reveal the mechanism for magnetic scratch erasure in the absence of thermal effects. This understanding is expected to lead to improved designs for mechanical scratch robustness of next-generation PMR media.


Author(s):  
Shou-Mo Zhang ◽  
Cuong-C. Vu ◽  
Qun-Yang Li ◽  
Norio Tagawa ◽  
Quan-Shui Zheng

Reduction of head-media spacing (HMS) keeps crucial during the increase of areal density of hard disk drives (HDD). The design of hard disk drive with a superlubric interface is reported with two schemes for HDI design to realize superlubricity. For the first scheme, the DLC layer is kept on the disk while removing the lubricant layer. The DLC layer on the transducer is replaced by graphene-like layer. The direct contact between head and disk could reduce the HMS to about 2.3 nm. For the second scheme, the DLC layer on disk is further replaced by graphene and the HMS could be reduced to below 1 nm. For the first scheme, the basic proof of concept experiments are conducted using micro-scale graphite island samples. Ultralow COF, with the average of 0.0344 on the interface of single crystalline graphite surface and DLC substrate is demonstrated by AFM. What’s more, the temperature dependence of friction between single crystalline graphite and DLC is measured by micro-force sensor mounted on micro-manipulator. The results show that heating helps to significantly decrease the friction. Desorption of contaminants along the interface is speculated to be the key mechanism for temperature dependence of friction. This work provides the concept of large-scale superlubricity relevant in HDD applications, which could be a promising technology to ultimately reduce HMS for future HDI development.


Author(s):  
Sarah Felix ◽  
Stanley Kon ◽  
Jianbin Nie ◽  
Roberto Horowitz

This paper describes the integration of thin film ZnO strain sensors onto hard disk drive suspensions for improved vibration suppression for tracking control. Sensor location was designed using an efficient optimization methodology based on linear quadratic gaussian (LQG) control. Sensors were fabricated directly onto steel wafers that were subsequently made into instrumented suspensions. Prototype instrumented suspensions were installed into commercial hard drives and tested. For the first time, a sensing signal was successfully obtained while the suspension was flying on a disk as in normal drive operation. Preliminary models were identified from experimental transfer functions. Nominal H2 control simulations demonstrated improved vibration suppression as a result of both the better resolution and higher sensing rate provided by the sensors.


Author(s):  
Jianbin Nie ◽  
Roberto Horowitz

This paper discusses the design and implementation of two track-following controllers for dual-stage hard disk drive servo systems. The first controller is designed by combining an outer loop sensitivity-decoupling (SD) controller with an inner loop disturbance observer (DOB). The second is designed by combining mixed H2/H∞ synthesis techniques with an add-on integral action. The designed controllers were implemented and evaluated on a disk drive with a PZT-actuated suspension-based dual-stage servo system. Position error signal (PES) for the servo system was obtained by measuring the slider displacement with an LDV and injecting a simulated track runout.


Author(s):  
Eric M. Jayson ◽  
Frank E. Talke

Hard disk drives must be designed to withstand shock during operation. Large movements of the slider during shock impulse can cause reading and writing errors, track misregistration, or in extreme cases, damage to the magnetic material and loss of data. The design of the air bearing contour determines the steady state flying conditions of the slider as well as dynamic flying conditions, including shock response. In this paper a finite element model of the hard disk drive mechanical components was developed to determine the time dependent forces and moments applied to the slider during a shock event. The time dependent forces and moments are applied as external loads in a solution of the dynamic Reynolds equation to determine the slider response to a shock event. The genetic algorithm was then used to optimize the air bearing contour for optimum shock response while keeping the steady flying conditions constant. The results show substantial differences in the spacing modulation of the head/disk interface after a shock as a function of the design of the air bearing contour.


Author(s):  
Sung-Chang Lee ◽  
George W. Tyndall ◽  
Mike Suk

Flying clearance distribution with thermo-mechanical actuation is characterized. Especially, what factors contributing to variation of flying clearance are identified based on thermo-mechanical actuation profiles taken from burn-in process of hard disk drives and Gage R&R test of touch down repeatability. In addition, the effect of static temperature compensation scheme on flying clearance distribution is investigated and disadvantages of static adaptation to temperature change are identified. In order to avoid catastrophic early HDI failures due to poor static temperature compensation, we need to dynamically adjust flying clearance whenever environmental change is detected. Otherwise we need to utilize individual temperature sensitivity values of each flying head to adjust thermo-mechanical actuation amount accordingly with temperature change.


Author(s):  
Hequn Min ◽  
Xiaoyang Huang ◽  
Qide Zhang ◽  
Xin Xia

This paper presents an experimental study of digital narrowband active control on the flow-induced vibrations (FIV) on the head gimbals assembly (HGA) in a working hard disk drive (HDD). Firstly, the modal testing on the HDD was carried out, in which the disk modes were analyzed with a 1-D laser Doppler vibrometer (LDV) and the HGA vibration modes with a 3-D LDV. Secondly, a digital feedback control close-loop was implemented in experiments to suppress the FIV spectrum peaks on the HGA. In this close-loop, the HGA vibrations detected by the LDV were used as feedback error signals, then the signals was passed through a digital controller to generate feedback signals to drive a piezoelectric disk to actuate feedback acoustic pressure around the HGA. Active control experiments were conducted in narrow bands on five principal peaks in the HGA off-plate vibration spectrum, around 1256Hz, 1428Hz, 2141Hz, 2519Hz and 3469Hz, respectively. It is shown that distinct suppression of at least 10 dB can be achieved on all these HGA vibration peaks.


2014 ◽  
Vol 50 (3) ◽  
pp. 155-161 ◽  
Author(s):  
George Mathew ◽  
Euiseok Hwang ◽  
Jongseung Park ◽  
Glen Garfunkel ◽  
David Hu

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