Gigabit Density Recording Using Dual-Element Mr/Inductive Heads on Thin-Film Disks

Inductive-write and MR-read dual-element heads of very narrow trackwidths and narrow gaps have been designed, fabricated and recording tested on thin film media of high coercivity and squareness. Results show excellent writeability at modest write currents of 50mA, large readback amplitudes with good signal-to-noise performance, very high linear-density resolution up to 5000fc/mm(-6db density), and trackwidths close to the design dimensions. These results show that such head-disk systems are capable of recording operations at the target areal density of 1 Gb/in2. © 1990 IEEE