R&D: TMR Tape Drive for 15TB Cartridge
Tunnel magnetoresistive sensors for magnetic tape recording applications, cartridge capacity improvements of 4X to 6x to be achieved in next 4 to 8 years
By Francis Pelletier | January 1, 2018 at 2:30 pmAIP Advances as published an article written by Robert G. Biskeborn, Robert E. Fontana, Calvin S. Lo, W. Stanley Czarnecki, Jason Liang, Icko E. T. Iben, Gary M. Decad, IBM Corporation, Systems – Almaden Research Center, San Jose, CA 95120, USA, and Venus A. Hipolito, IBM Corporation, Systems – Silver Creek, San Jose, CA 95138, USA.
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Abstract: “This paper highlights the development of tunnel magnetoresistive (TMR) sensors for magnetic tape recording applications. This has led to the introduction of a tape drives supporting a 15TB native tape cartridge, currently the highest capacity available. Underscoring this development is the fact that the TMR sensors must run in continual contact with the tape media. This is contrasted with modern hard disk drive (HDD) sensors, which fly above the disk platters. Various challenges encountered in developing and deploying TMR are presented. In addition, advances to the write transducer are also discussed. Lastly, the authors show that future density scaling for tape recording, unlike that for HDD, is not facing limits imposed by photolithography or superparamagnetic physics, suggesting that cartridge capacity improvements of four to 6x will be achieved in the next four to eight years.“