A SOFT ERROR RATE TRACK DENSITY MODEL FOR MR HEADS

The calculation of soft error rate from models of the disk, head, and channel is used to predict optimum read and write widths for MR heads. For a 4.3 mu m track pitch, 120 kfci, and PR4 coding, the best write width is 3.8 mu m and the best read width is 2.9 mu m. The optimum wri te width is relatively insensitive to track misregistration and read a nd write width process variations. The optimum read width decreases wi th increasing track misregistration. The soft error rate is most sensi tive to write-to-write track misregistration.