Perpendicular recording heads for extremely high-density recording

The basic design and recording performance of advanced probe heads with trapezoidal pole tips are described. Eighty advanced probe heads were chosen to study the effects of different media designs on parametrics and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) performances. Excellent writability of the advanced probe heads is demonstrated by a series of overwriting (OW) and nonlinear transition shift (NLTS) saturation measurements. Write currents as low as 5 mA_o-p are required for recording. Excellent OW can be obtained with both high and low OW ratios. Better than -14 dB of NLTS was measured at linear densities as high as 950 KFCI. While OW was observed to be insensitive to media designs under study, NLTS and media SNR were observed to be strongly dependent on the details of media designs. Adjacent track erasure margins of the advanced probe heads were observed to be excellent on both media under study. Minimal side-writing has been observed using the advanced probe heads with trapezoidal pole shape. The advanced probe heads have also been successfully integrated into 80 GB/P perpendicular magnetic recording drives. Finally, linear densities as high as 830 KBPI and track densities as high as 188.7 KTPI were achieved on optimal head/media combinations. Perpendicular magnetic recording at areal densities as high as 145.7 Gb/in² have thus been demonstrated.