We have successfully demonstrated longitudinal recording at areal density of 130 Gb/in2 at a data rate as high as 170 Mbps (21 MB/s) and at a bit-aspect-ratio (BAR) of 2.9, using merged inductive-write/spin-valve-read heads on low noise thin film disks. The heads were fabricated with the standard photolithography and wafer pole trimming used in our currently available commercial products. The reader is a bottom synthetic spin valve (BSSV) with a 0.09 μm gap, and the writer has a conventionally trimmed pole with 0.09 μm gap. The reader magnetic read width (MRW) was measured at 0.10 μm. At read bias of ∼4 mA we measured reader sensitivity as high as 20 mV/μm. The write head was also optimized for tracks as narrow as 0.14 μm operating at overwrite (OW) of 36 dB and nonlinear transition shift (NLTS) better than −25 dB at 610 kBPI, without precomp. Using conventional media we measured total spectral SNR∼18 dB. The media to electronics noise ratio was 4.8, showing that we are still operating in a media noise limited system. Low-flying air bearing surface (ABS) design and advanced pole tip recession (PTR) control were required to achieve magnetic spacing of about 15 nm.

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Sputter deposited FeRhN films with a value of more than 20 kG were used as high moment flux enhancement layer in the write element in order to achieve a recording density of 63.2 Gb/in 2 . This layer was disposed between write gap and upper portion of the top pole, which was made of Ni 45 Fe 55 with a of 16 kG. A 36 dB overwrite and nonlinear transition shift of less then 20 dB were obtained at this recording density. A finite element model was used to calculate the longitudinal field and field gradient at the medium location. The results suggested significant increases of both by incorporating the flux enhancement layer.

We have successfully demonstrated longitudinal recording at areal densities greater than 60 Gb in 2 at data rates as high as 160 Mbps (20 MB/s) and at a Bit-Aspect-Ratio (BAR) of 5.7, using merged inductive-write/spin-valve-read heads with microactuators on low noise thin film disks. The heads were fabricated with the standard photolithography and wafer pole trimming used in currently available commercial products. At track densities of 60 KTPI and higher, traditional servoing mechanism will not be adequate. With the use of a microactuator, we can further improve the track density by 15%, the linear density by 10% and the areal density by more than 20%. Thus, using microactuator with the 50 Gb in 2 head/media combination we have increased our areal density achievement up to 63.2 Gb in 2 .

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