Fundamental features of perpendicular magnetic recording and the design consideration for future portable HDD integration

Hard disk drive has quickly flooded into mobile fields. Some of the latest representing applications are slim laptop computers, car navigation systems, portable music players and portable photo/video viewers. This is the largest paradigm shift for the hard disk drive application in terms of the environmental condition under which hard disk drives are in operation. The hard disk drives in the new portable applications may operate in wider temperature range and need to resist much severer vibration and shock conditions than conventional cases. In order to propel the future possible application of portable storage devices, the magnetic recording technology for future hard disk drive must have strong environmental robustness along with high density recording performance. Intrinsic magnetic features of perpendicular recording are studied as the backbone for designing future high density hard disk drive systems. By considering portable use of the small form factor hard disk drives, some of the distinguished features play a significant role to attain required performance such as thermal reliability and operational conditions. In this paper, the performance consideration for high density perpendicular magnetic recording and the impact to future small form factor design direction are discussed.