Recording technologies for terabit per square inch systems

It is believed that areal densities approaching one terabit per square inch will ultimately be achieved with conventional magnetic recording technology. Such densities require that very sharp transitions be written on well-defined extremely narrow tracks in a very finely grained thermally stable recording medium. These requirements drive the key characteristics and geometries of the read and write heads and of the recording medium itself. This paper re-examines several aspects of a proposed terabit per square inch recording system and discusses some of the critical technologies required to support such extreme areal densities. These include the necessity of very low magnetic spacing, the ability to fabricate very narrow-track write/read heads, and the need for exquisite track-following capability. One of the biggest challenges at these extreme areal densities will be to develop a recording system that can also deliver very high data rates.