Vapor-deposited thin-film recording heads

A vapor-deposited thin-film recording head and a unique reading technique are described. The head structure used for both write and read is similar to that of the Mated-Film memory element. Conventional longitudinal recordings at 4000 flux reversals per inch have been written with a thin-film head in 300-Å-thick iron films having a coercivity of 80 Oe. Conventional longitudinal recordings up to 1600 flux reversals per inch in thin-film media and in oxide media have been sensed with the thin-film head. Although a one-turn sense line is used, flux amplification is obtained because the head magnetization, not the flux from the recording, is sensed. This also results in an output signal that is independent of recording media velocity.