Single pole, single turn, probe GMR head and micro-actuator for high-density perpendicular recording

Abstract

The rate of progress in magnetic recording has been driven in these last ten years by a strong competition and by multimedia demand. Since 1991, the rate of progress has been 60% per year (and close to 150% in the last year), much larger than that of the ICs which were, up to this time, considered as a yardstick in the industry. We have seen in the past, many predictions limiting the recording density, none of which has been a true limit. Nevertheless, we will probably achieve before the year 2005, the superparamagnetic limit for longitudinal recording which should be in the vicinity of some hundreds of Gb/in 2 (IBM J. Res. Dev. (2000)). This prediction is the driving force for perpendicular recording which is considered as a serious outsider, as the superparamagnetic limit is believed to be pushed further out. Perpendicular recording has to be introduced as soon as possible in a product, and must show also a longer future toward 1 Tb/in 2. This paper analyzes this challenge and presents a new GMR probe head and a new micro-actuator which are particularly well suited for perpendicular recording.