The Technology of Patterned Media: Islands of Opportunity by Tom Albrecht, Hitachi GST

With perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR) now in high volume production, researchers are looking at overcoming the next obstacle to advancing hard drive areal densities. Hitachi researchers anticipate that extensions to PMR technology will take hard drive advancements out beyond the next two decades, using ever more complex and sophisticated means, such as patterned media.

The major challenge that hard disk drive designers are facing in increasing data densities is that the magnetic grains on the disk that store the data must become smaller and will eventually become too small to be thermally stable at room temperature. Patterned media is one potential solution to this problem. Today, roughly 100 magnetic grains make up a single bit of data. With patterned media, researchers are creating isolated magnetic islands with one magnetic grain representing a bit of data. By using fewer magnetic grains, patterned media allows more bits of data per square inch of disk space, while maintaining thermal stability.

This presentation will cover the technology behind patterned media and how it promises to deliver continued areal density advancements ten plus years into the future.