Trailing Shield Head Recording in Discrete Track Media

Magnetic recording in perpendicular media using write heads with trailing shields was simulated. The recording performance of discrete track media and continuous media was compared. Trailing shields increase the head field gradient, leading to sharper transitions and higher signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). The optimum trailing shield gap was determined to be 30 nm for both types of media. Using such a write head and subject to the condition of no adjacent track erasure the discrete track media SNR was 1.5 dB higher than the continuous media at a linear density of 1700 kfci