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We review the 2 Tbit/in2 reader design landscape based on existing knowledge and projection. We found that the reader signal-to-noise
ratio (SNR) requirement will be highly challenging due to the rapid increase in noise and the additional requirements from assisted
writing. An acceptable level of channel bit density can be achieved in spite of a slow head-to-media spacing (HMS) reduction provided
that both the shield-to-shield (SS) spacing and the “a” parameter scale with the bit length. We expect the side reading control for high
ktpi to be difficult, and potentially a reader side shield will be required. The reader will likely use a higher quality MgO tunneling giant
magnetoresistance (TGMR) stack with improved permanent-magnet coercivity. Certain new structures such as the differential reader
or the trilayer will likely be part of the solution.
Index Terms—Giant magnetoresistance, magnetic heads, tunneling.
I. INTRODUCTION
II. SIGNAL-TO-NOISE RATIO where is the damping constant, the magnetic moment,
We expect the reader signal to noise ratio (SNR) to face the volume, and the effective hard-bias field, all of the free
double challenges above the 1 Tbit/in design point. The first layer.
challenge is from the increasing reader noise as the device Our noise projection contains both measurement and calcu-
volume decreases. By reader noise we refer to the intrinsic lation (Fig. 2). The solid curve shows the thermal magnetic
reader noise without the media contribution. The primary noise, which bends near 1 Tbit/in . This is because the noise
sources of the reader noise are 1/f noise, thermal magnetic density values below 1 Tbit/in are measurement, the values
noise, and spin momentum transfer (SMT) noise [1]–[4]. The above 1 Tbit/in are calculation results based on (1), and the
1/f noise is not well understood, and the SMT noise is complex. two regions do not exhibit exactly the same rate of change. The
We project the thermal magnetic noise for future products using measured heads are selected from a few generations of Seagate
Neil Smith’s formula: products in various phases of development. They are represen-
tative of the respective population. A description of the noise
measurement setup may be found in [4]. Specifically for the
thermal magnetic noise, we measure the flat part of the noise
(1) spectra between the high frequency FMR peaks and the low fre-
quency 1/f noise. Typically such measurement is taken between
100 MHz and 1 GHz. We then subtract the Johnson-Shot noise
Manuscript received August 28, 2009; accepted January 04, 2010. Current to obtain the thermal magnetic noise. The Johnson-Shot noise
version published February 18, 2010. Corresponding author: D. Song (e-mail: is computed based on the measured reader resistance and the
dion.song@seagate.com). bias voltage used. We found that the thermal magnetic noise ap-
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org. proached and surpassed the Johnson-Shot noise in our recent
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TMAG.2010.2041040 products. This is a manifestation of the sharp one over volume
0018-9464/$26.00 © 2010 IEEE
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698 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MAGNETICS, VOL. 46, NO. 3, MARCH 2010
TABLE I
SRC 2 Tbit/in READER MACROSPEC, TAKEN FROM SHINGLE WRITING
MACROSPEC. COURTESY OF I. TAGAWA
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CHEN et al.: 2 Tbit/in READER DESIGN OUTLOOK 699
Fig. 4. Side reading for different reader width. The top two curves are for SSS
Fig. 3. Channel bit density projection for higher linear densities. of 26 nm. The bottom curve is for SSS of 20 nm. The horizontal guideline is the
side reading control goal.
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700 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MAGNETICS, VOL. 46, NO. 3, MARCH 2010
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CHEN et al.: 2 Tbit/in READER DESIGN OUTLOOK 701
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