CHALLENGES IN THE PRACTICAL IMPLEMENTATION OF PERPENDICULAR MAGNETIC RECORDING

The storing of recorded bits in a perpendicular orientation holds grea t promise for high linear density recording systems, However, the most common embodiment of perpendicular recording (the probe head/double l ayer media) has several unresolved issues complicating its integration into commercial disk drives, The major issues include media relaxatio n, head induced media erasure, resolution limitations due to head-to-u nderlayer spacing constraints, and extreme sensitivity to stray magnet ics fields, which are complex and highly interrelated, It is concluded that the realization of perpendicular recording in commercial disk dr ives will require new transducer and media designs that solve these pr oblems.