Evaluation of Sputtered Tape Media With Hard Disk Drive Components

The magnetic properties and the recording capability of sputtered tape media are evaluated using hard-disk-drive (HDD) components. The sputtered tape media consists of a CoPtCr-SiO2 granular magnetic layer capped with a CoPtCrB magnetic layer. We find that the magnetic cap improves the properties of the sputtered tape significantly. The recording performance is also much improved compared to samples without the cap. We demonstrate that such sputtered tape could achieve an areal density of 400 Gb/in(2) under shingled magnetic recording conditions. Comparison to a perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR) hard disk having a similar magnetic stack and fabricated for hard disk drive development circa 2009 is also provided, showing potential for further improvements of the tape medium.