The present invention relates to a magnetic recording method, system and apparatus for increasing areal density capability (ADC), data rate and reliability for a magnetic data storage system.
Magnetic data storage systems are utilized in a wide variety of devices in both stationary and mobile computing environments. Magnetic storage systems include hard disk drives (HDD), and solid state hybrid drives (SSHD) that combine features of a solid-state drive (SSD) and a hard disk drive (HDD). Examples of devices that incorporate magnetic storage systems include desktop computers, portable notebook computers, portable hard disk drives, servers, network attached storage, television set top boxes, digital cameras, digital video cameras, video game consoles, and portable media players, etc.
These numerous devices utilize magnetic storage systems for storing and retrieving digital information. Storage density is a measure of the quantity of digital information that can be stored on a given length of track, area of surface, or in a given volume of a magnetic storage medium. Higher density is generally more desirable since it allows greater volumes of data to be stored in the same physical space. Density generally has a direct effect on performance within a particular medium. Increasing the storage density of disks requires technological advances and changes to various components or storage subsystem of a hard disk.
The foregoing aspects and many of the attendant advantages described herein will become more fully understood from the detailed description and the accompanying drawings. The drawings constitute a part of this specification and include exemplary embodiments of the invention, which may be embodied in various forms. It is to be understood that in some instances, various aspects of the invention may be shown exaggerated or enlarged to facilitate an understanding of the invention; therefore, the drawings are not necessarily to scale. In addition, in the embodiments depicted herein, like reference numerals in the various drawings refer to the conceptual design or structural elements represent each particular component or element of the apparatus.
Further areas of applicability of the present invention will become apparent from the detailed description provided hereinafter. It should be understood that the detailed description and specific examples, while indicating the preferred embodiment of the invention, are intended for purposes of illustration only and are not intended to limit the scope of the invention.
In the following description, numerous specific details are disclosed to provide a thorough understanding of embodiments of the method, system and apparatus. One skilled in the relevant art will recognize, however, that embodiments of the method, system and apparatus described herein may be practiced without one or more of the specific details, or with other electronic devices, methods, components, and materials, and that various changes and modifications can be made while remaining within the scope of the appended claims. In other instances, well-known electronic devices, components, structures, materials, operations, methods, process steps and the like may not be shown or described in detail to avoid obscuring aspects of the embodiments. Embodiments of the apparatus, method and system are described herein with reference to figures.
Reference throughout this specification to “one embodiment,” “an embodiment,” or similar language means that a particular feature, structure, electronic device, method or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment. Thus, appearances of the phrases “in one embodiment,” “in an embodiment,” and similar language throughout this specification may refer to separate embodiments or may all refer to the same embodiment. Furthermore, the described features, structures, methods, electronic devices, or characteristics may be combined in any suitable manner in one or more embodiments.
With the numerous devices currently utilizing magnetic storage systems, hard disk drive (HDD) performance demands and design needs have intensified, including a need for increased storage density. There is an ongoing effort within the HDD industry to increase memory storage capacity while maintaining the same external drive form factors. Areal density is a measure of the number of bits that can be stored in a given unit of area, usually expressed in bits per square inch (BPSI). Being a two-dimensional measure, areal density is computed as the product of two one-dimensional density measures, namely linear density and track density. Linear Density is a measure of how closely bits are situated within a length of track, usually expressed in bits per inch (BPI), and measured along the length of the tracks around a disk. Track Density is a measure of how closely the concentric tracks on the disk are situated, or how many tracks are placed in an inch of radius on the disk, usually expressed in tracks per inch (TPI). The current demand for larger memory storage capacity in a smaller dimension is therefore linked to the demand for ever increasing storage track density.
Referring to the figures wherein identical reference numerals denote the same elements throughout the various views,
The disk drive 10 also includes an actuator arm assembly 24 that pivots about a pivot bearing 22, which in turn is rotatably supported by the base plate 12 and/or cover. The actuator arm assembly 24 includes one or more individual rigid actuator arms 26 that extend out from near the pivot bearing 22. Multiple actuator arms 26 are typically disposed in vertically spaced relation, with one actuator arm 26 being provided for each major data storage surface of each data storage disk 14 of the disk drive 10. Other types of actuator arm assembly configurations may be utilized as well, such as an assembly having one or more rigid actuator arm tips or the like that cantilever from a common structure. Movement of the actuator arm assembly 24 is provided by an actuator arm drive assembly, such as a voice coil motor 20 or the like. The voice coil motor (VCM) 20 is a magnetic assembly that controls the operation of the actuator arm assembly 24 under the direction of control electronics 40.
A suspension 28 is attached to the free end of each actuator arm 26 and cantilevers therefrom. The slider 30 is disposed at or near the free end of each suspension 28. What is commonly referred to as the read/write head (e.g., transducer) is mounted as a head unit 32 under the slider 30 and is used in disk drive read/write operations. As the suspension 28 moves, the slider 30 moves along arc path 34 and across the corresponding data storage disk 14 to position the head unit 32 at a selected position on the data storage disk 14 for the disk drive read/write operations. The read/write head senses and/or changes the magnetic fields stored on the disks. Perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR) involves recorded bits that are stored in a generally planar recording layer in a generally perpendicular or out-of-plane orientation. A PMR read head and a PMR write head are usually formed as an integrated read/write head on an air-bearing slider. When the disk drive 10 is not in operation, the actuator arm assembly 24 may be pivoted to a parked position utilizing ramp assembly 42. The head unit 32 is connected to a preamplifier 36 via head wires routed along the actuator arm 26, which is interconnected with the control electronics 40 of the disk drive 10 by a flex cable 38 that is typically mounted on the actuator arm assembly 24. Signals are exchanged between the head unit 32 and its corresponding data storage disk 14 for disk drive read/write operations.
The data storage disks 14 include a plurality of embedded servo sectors each comprising coarse head position information, such as a track address, and fine head position information, such as servo bursts. The written in servo information typically were done within the drive factory during the manufacture process. There are two ways of write servo information, one use special head and machine to write before put the disk together, another way is to use recording head after drive assembly complete. As the head 32 passes over each servo sector, a read/write channel processes the read signal emanating from the head to demodulate the position information. The control circuitry processes the position information to generate a control signal applied to the VCM 20. The VCM 20 rotates the actuator arm 26 in order to position the head over a target track during the seek operation, and maintains the head over the target track during a tracking operation. The head unit 32 may utilize various types of read sensor technologies such as anisotropic magnetoresistive (AMR), giant magnetoresistive (GMR), tunneling magnetoresistive (TMR), other magnetoresistive technologies, or other suitable technologies.
There is an ongoing effort within the magnetic recording industry to increase memory storage capacity. To increase areal density beyond conventional magnetic recording media designs, smaller bits may be used, but this can cause thermal instabilities. To avoid this, media with high magneto-crystalline anisotropy (Ku) may be used. However, increasing Ku also increases the coercivity of the media, which can exceed the write field capability of the write head. Since it is known that the coercivity of the magnetic material of the recording layer is temperature dependent, one method to address thermal stability and increased coercivity is using heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR), wherein high-Ku magnetic recording material is heated locally during writing by the write head to lower the coercivity enough for writing to occur, but where the coercivity/anisotropy is high enough for thermal stability of the recorded bits at the ambient temperature of the disk drive (e.g., the normal operating or “room” temperature of approximately 15-30° C.). In some HAMR systems, the magnetic recording material is heated to near or above its Curie temperature. The recorded data is then read back at ambient temperature by a conventional magnetoresistive read head, e.g., a giant magnetoresistance (GMR) or tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) based read head.
One type of HAMR disk drive uses a laser source and an optical waveguide coupled to a transducer, e.g., a near-field transducer (NFT), for heating the recording material on the disk. A near-field transducer is an optical device with subwavelength features used to concentrate the light delivered by the waveguide into spot smaller than the diffraction limit and at distance smaller than the wavelength of light. In a HAMR head, the NFT is typically located at the air-bearing surface (ABS) of the slider that also supports the read/write head, and rides or “flies” above the disk surface while creating an optical spot on the disk.
In conventional recording, media tracks are accessed for writing in random order to increase rewrite speed. However, the track density may be limited by adjacent track interference (ATI) in which a newly written track can cause erasure and/or loss of signal to noise ratio (SNR) to adjacent tracks. With HAMR, the ATI problem is especially significant since the heated spot can significantly expand into an adjacent track, softening the magnetic material such that fringe fields, including weak fringe fields, can cause serious track erasure. Generally, writeability (or the write field), the write field gradient in down track and cross track directions, the transition curvature and ATI limit perpendicular magnetic recording for a given head and media design. Due to limits in writeability, the media grain size cannot be further reduced as it approaches to thermal stability limit. For HAMR, the media grain size can be further reduced as described earlier. For HAMR, the effective field gradient, dominated by temperature gradient in media, along down track and cross track directions, transition curvature and ATI limits its ADC potential.
The reader shields not only help to improve read sensing element spatial resolution, but also act as the leads for reader bias current. When adding more than one readers in the playback process, noise cancellation can be done efficiently, including cancellation of inter symbol interference (ISI) or inter track interference (ITI), thus leads to an improved SNR for a given written transition pattern and result in a better ADC capability. Since each read sensor is operated independently, each sensor needs to have its own shield in order to boost SNR and improve resolution. In the meantime, a separate circuit loop is needed in order to obtain playback waveform out of each individual layer.
A temperature sensor 260 is typically placed next to the read sensor exposed at or near ABS. The signal from temperature sensor enable drive to determine the dynamic flying height of the recording head on top of the media in read and write operations. More importantly, the contact event is also detected. When in contact, the friction heating will cause temperature sensor 260 to have significant change in resistance or output signal. Since the detection needs to be correlated to read and write operation, the preferred implementation is to have such temperature sensor to be close to reader and writer.
The write head 250 typically has a trailing (251 and 252) and a leading (254 and 255) shields, a write pole tip 253, yoke 258 and via 259. The write coils 256 current applied in different directions to energize the writer to produce the magnetic write field. The writer heater typically located in one of the locations shown in place labeled 257. In the write process, the writer heater 257 is energized, push the write pole tip 253 to be closer to the media. Then the write coil 256 current helps to let the magnetic write pole tip 253 to saturate and generates a large magnetic write field. In playback, the reader heater located in one of the places labeled as 267, is energized, and pushes the readers (261-263 and 264-266) to be in close point with respect to the media ensure best SNR.
In both read and write processes, a small current is applied to the temperature sensor 260, the feedback from the temperature sensor 260 can be used to determine the head to media physical separation and feedback to the applied current used in heaters (257 and 267). Thus help the head to maintain a constant small flying height below 3 nm, but stable during the read and write processes.
In HAMR, the laser power or the writer coil current configurations are used to determine the write width and to optimize for SNR, this write configuration including: laser power, laser current waveform, heater current and waveform, write current, write current overshoot and write current overshoot duration. For PMR, the write width is more or less fixed by the write pole width. The write current, heater current and waveform, write current overshoot and current overshoot duration are the primary write configuration that needs to be optimized for ADC, drive performance and reliability.
In an embodiment, the bottom and middle track width are substantially equal to each other after being trimmed, such as tracks 311, 312, 313 and 314 have the same width. The written in track position between neighboring tracks are shifted in different value from bottom tracks to different middle tracks, such as the spacing between center of track 311 to track 312 is larger than the spacing between center of track 312 to track 313. The relative spacing between bottom track center 311 to the first middle track (312) center is higher than the first middle track (312) center to the second middle track (313) center. The relative spacing between the first middle track 312 center to the second middle track 313 center is approximately same as the spacing between the second middle track 313 center to the third middle track 314 center. In the case on one side there is no middle track, the spacing between top and bottom track centers are larger than the spacing between two neighboring middle tracks or the last middle track to the next top track.
Note that as long as the drive operation follows the basic rules set by the blocked magnetic recording, there are opportunities to improve ADC and performance in drive in a much flexible manner. In one embodiment, the written middle tracks do not have to follow all sequential order as set by SMR. As shown in
In an embodiment, control circuitry sets predetermined values for HAMR including: track pitch, laser power, linear density, write current, current overshoot, overshoot duration and dynamic flying height or writer heater etc., for top, middle and bottom tracks. In addition, the recording configurations stored also include the track position shift between write tracks relative to the read back final data tracks. Depend on the bottom, middle and top tracks, the relative shift of the written tracks position are different. In another embodiment, control circuitry sets predetermined values for PMR recording: track pitch, linear density, write current, current overshoot, overshoot duration and dynamic flying height etc. for top, middle and bottom tracks.
For the case the top tracks are with different track width using different heads, additional write configuration for each head and for each type of tracks needs to be stored in drive memory or data cache. These write configurations may vary from ID to OD, and also may depend on drive ambient temperature, pressure and other conditions, will be stored in drive memory or data cache. For example, in one embodiment, the write configurations may vary by zone, for each zone, the write configurations for top, middle and bottom tracks will need to be stored.
In one embodiment, the write configurations are determined before the drive ship to customers, during the factory test process. The write configuration is stored in drive. During the drive operation in the field, after the customer use the drive, the optimal operation condition may change over time. One of the embodiments here includes monitor of possible data failure and drive re-optimization of the writing configuration for top, middle and bottom tracks, and over time to adjust the write configuration to help to reduce the drive failure.
In one embodiment, a drive includes recording method of BMR and SMR. The recording media have separate regions or zones for BPM and SMR separately. In one embodiment, a drive includes recording method of BMR and conventional recording. The recording media have separate regions or zones for BPM and conventional recording. In one embodiment, the drive includes different BMR configurations, such as BMR5,5, BRM20,5 and BMR0,0 . . . In one embodiment, the drive include a mixture of BMRx,y, with one or more of the SMR, IMR and conventional recording in any combination.
In an embodiment, track 421 is written wide, followed by track 422, followed by track 424, 425,426, 427, 428, 429, 430, 431, 432 and followed by track 433. The write track width of track 421 and 422 can be larger than other tracks. The write width of track 433 can be smaller than other tracks. To achieve that, the write configurations in HAMR needs to be optimized, typically including adjust laser bias current, laser bias current waveform, writer current, writer current overshoot, writer current overshoot duration and heater current and waveform. In PMR, this includes optimization of write configurations for all write heads, if there are more than one writer in an integrated head, typically includes: writer current, writer current overshoot, writer current overshoot duration and heater current and waveform for each heads.
Alternatively, for the same amount of data that needs to be written in the same number of tracks, the write order can be different, such as: write track 421 first, followed by tracks 424, 425, 426, then followed by track 422, followed by tracks 427, 428, 429, 430, 431, 432 and finally write the track 433.
In an embodiment, the data rate and the linear density of the tracks 421, 422 is substantially the same as track 424, 425, 426, 427, 428, 429, 430, 431, 432, and also substantially the same as track 433. Here, the same data clock rate, disk rotation speed and dynamic fly height (DFH) may be used for different tracks. In this embodiment, the data clock rate, DFH, and record of track/data rate correspondence is maintained the same between tracks. Also, in an embodiment, the read channel does not have to differentiate between different tracks within the same zone.
In an embodiment, control circuitry sets predetermined values for different track pitch, linear density, write current, and dynamic flying height, for all tracks from 421 to 433. In HAMR this write configuration also includes laser current amplitude and laser current waveform.
In an alternative embodiment, bottom tracks 421 and 422 may have different data rate or linear density as compare to middle tracks 424, 425, 426 etc. In an alternative embodiment, bottom tracks 421 and 422 may have different data rate or linear density as compare to top track 433. In an alternative embodiment, top, bottom and middle tracks can all have different linear density and data rates.
In general approach, one can define the number of middle tracks between top and bottom tracks as the reference for different configurations of the blocked magnetic recording (BMR). For example, BMR3,3 stands for three middle tracks on each side of the bottom tracks, and is illustrated in
In an embodiment, the number of middle tracks on either side of the bottom or top tracks are same, such as BMR3,3 or BMR10,10. In another embodiment, the number of middle tracks on either side of the bottom or top tracks are different. Such as BMR5,0, BMR7,0, BRM19,3, etc. The number of middle tracks on either side of the bottom tracks can be varied from 0 to a large number, for example, 100. This number can be adjusted to optimize for drive capacity/performance requirement, depend on different application needs.
As shown, in an embodiment, the drive first determines architecture and obtain optimized write and rewrite configurations for top, middle and bottom tracks for each data region as detailed in step 502. This is usually done at the factory as part of drive self-test or certify process before ship the drive product to customer. Here the region can be zone based, sector based, band based or another geometric unit as defined within each disk surface. Next, the information package is intended to be written to a magnetic storage disk is send to drive, as detailed in step 504. Next, as stated in step 506, write the bottom track or tracks based on the amount of data to be written. Then start to write on the middle tracks, as stated in 508. There are two approaches, write middle tracks immediately after write bottom track 508, or write both sides of first middle tracks before write other middle tracks 510. Then continue write other middle tracks sequentially as stated in 512 until all middle tracks are written, before write the top tracks, as stated in 514. The top tracks are written only after both sides of middle tracks are written. In the case the number of middle tracks is zero between top and bottom tracks on either side, the top tracks are written after the bottom or the upper most middle tracks are written.
In another embodiment, if the previous written data does not occupy all tracks in a band, the new data can be written continuously on the middle or top tracks as in step 508, 510, or 512. Each newly written track will partially trim the previous written track next to them, unless a new bottom track needs to be written.
In another embodiment, any rewritten data or written in new data can start from any bottom tracks, the closest middle tracks where there are no previously written data and the top tracks where both sides of the middle tracks are written. Within those tracks, the access can be random.
Turning now to
In an embodiment, the methods described herein are executed by system 700. Specifically, processor module 704 executes one or more sequences of instructions contained in memory module 710 and/or storage module 706. In one example, instructions may be read into memory module 710 from another machine-readable medium, such as storage module 706. In another example, instructions may be read directly into memory module 710 from I/O module 708, for example from an operator via a user interface. Information may be communicated from processor module 704 to memory module 710 and/or storage module 706 via bus 702 for storage. In an example, the information may be communicated from processor module 704, memory module 710, and/or storage module 706 to I/O module 708 via bus 702. The information may then be communicated from I/O module 708 to an operator via the user interface.
Memory module 710 may be random access memory, flash, part of the media or other dynamic storage device for storing information and instructions to be executed by processor module 704. In an example, memory module 710 and storage module 706 are both a machine-readable medium. In an embodiment, processor module 704 includes one or more processors in a multi-processing arrangement, where each processor may perform different functions or execute different instructions and/or processes contained in memory module 710 and/or storage module 706. For example, one or more processors may execute instructions for heating and writing to tracks, and one or more processors may execute instructions for input/output functions. Also, hard-wired circuitry may be used in place of or in combination with software instructions to implement various example embodiments. Thus, embodiments are not limited to any specific combination of hardware circuitry and software. Bus 702 may be any suitable communication mechanism for communicating information. Processor module 704, storage module 706, I/O module 708, and memory module 710 are coupled with bus 702 for communicating information between any of the modules of system 700 and/or information between any module of system 700 and a device external to system 700. For example, information communicated between any of the modules of system 700 may include instructions and/or data.
Circuit or circuitry, as used herein, includes all levels of available integration, for example, from discrete logic circuits to the highest level of circuit integration such as VLSI, and includes programmable logic components programmed to perform the functions of embodiments as well as general-purpose or special-purpose processors programmed with instructions to perform those functions. Machine-readable medium, as used herein, refers to any medium that participates in providing instructions to processor module 704 for execution. Such a medium may take many forms, including, but not limited to, non-volatile media, and volatile media. Non-volatile media includes, for example, optical or magnetic disks, such as storage module 706. Volatile media includes dynamic memory, such as memory module 710. Common forms of machine-readable media or computer-readable is media include, for example, floppy disk, a flexible disk, hard disk, magnetic tape, any other magnetic medium, a CD-ROM, DVD, any other optical medium, punch cards, paper tape, any other physical mediums with patterns of holes, a RAM, a PROM, an EPROM, a FLASH EPROM, any other memory chip or cartridge, or any other medium from which a processor can read.
In an embodiment, a non-transitory machine-readable medium is employed including executable instructions for writing to a data storage system. The instructions include code for heating the bottom track of a recording media with a first power using a radiation source, writing to the bottom track, heating the middle tracks of a recording media with a second power, writing to the middle tracks, heating the top track of a recording media with a third power, writing to the top track after both sides of middle tracks were written. The first and second power are higher power than the third power. In another embodiment, for HAMR write, the first and second power can be different, preferably the first power is higher than the second power and the second power is higher than the third power. In another embodiment, the first power and second power can be approximately equal to each other, and the third power is lower than the first and the second power. In another embodiment, the write current, current overshoot and overshoot duration is further optimized to write with different track width and improve ADC.
In an embodiment, the non-transitory machine-readable medium further includes executable instructions for writing to the top track at substantially the same data rate and linear density as the bottom track and the middle tracks. In an embodiment, the radiation source is a laser. In another embodiment, the non-transitory machine-readable medium further includes executable instructions for setting the first power and the second power at substantially a same power. In an embodiment, the non-transitory machine-readable medium further includes executable instructions for setting the third power in the range of about 4 percent to 30 percent less power than the first power and the second power.
In an embodiment, the non-transitory machine-readable medium further includes executable instructions for setting predetermined values for track pitch, heating power, linear density, write current, and dynamic flying height, for the bottom track, the middle tracks, and the top track. In an embodiment, the non-transitory machine-readable medium further includes executable instructions for recording or making available for recording up to about 50 percent of the total recording tracks utilizing substantially the same laser power as the third power, or utilizing a lower power than the first power and the second power when implementing BMR0,0. In an embodiment, the non-transitory machine-readable medium further includes executable instructions for setting predetermined values for track pitch, linear density, write current, current overshoot, current overshoot duration and dynamic flying height, for the bottom track, the middle tracks, and the top track. For the same side of disk, the bottom track, middle track and top track may be written by different writers.
In an embodiment, the non-transitory machine-readable medium further includes executable instructions for recording or making available for recording up to about 50 percent of the total recording tracks utilizing one writer in PMR, when there are more than one writers build into one integrated head. In an embodiment, the non-transitory machine-readable medium further includes executable instructions for recording or making available for recording more than 50 percent of the total recording tracks were written wide as compare to top tracks, as the bottom tracks or middle tracks, partially trimmed to be approximately same width as the top tracks.
In an embodiment, the non-transitory machine-readable medium further includes executable instructions for recording or making available for recording more than 50 percent of the total recording tracks were written as the bottom tracks or middle tracks, partially trimmed to be narrow than the top tracks. In an embodiment, the non-transitory machine-readable medium further includes executable instructions for rewrite the top track, bottom track and upper most middle tracks directly when there is no other user data on the tracks above the track to be rewritten.
In an embodiment, the non-transitory machine-readable medium further includes executable instructions for writing a bottom track of a recording media under an optimal writing configurations, the instructions further include code for positioning another bottom track at a predetermined distance from the first bottom track and write that bottom track under an optimal writing configurations. Then write middle tracks in between bottom tracks, with each track written partially trim the previously written tracks and use optimized write configuration determined during the drive test. Then write the top track after both sides of the middle tracks were written. In an embodiment, the percentage of track width being trimmed for different bottom and middle tracks can be different, depend on drive data format arrangement or ATI requirement. In an embodiment using HAMR, laser power is one of the primary writing configurations to be varied to achieve optimal recording configuration. In another embodiment, using PMR, more than one writers maybe used and write current, current overshoot and current overshoot duration is optimized to achieve optimal configuration. In another embodiment, only one writer in PMR is used, and top track will not be written narrower as compare to the bottom and middle tracks.
In one embodiment as shown in
In one embodiment, two readers 816 and 817 are aligned to one of the writers write pole in down track direction. An optional reader heater 815 typically is located next to one of the readers but recessed from the ABS. For the reader location align to 816 and 817, the heater location is optimally aligned to read 816 and write 811 heads. In another embodiment, two readers 818 and 819 aligned substantially in down track direction, a few micrometers away from the write pole. In the cross track direction, both readers reside between the writer 811 and 812 as shown in place of 818 and 819. The reader to writer separation in down track direction is typically a few micrometers. In this embodiment, the reader heater 815 is align to the reader 818 and 819. In an embodiment, the readers are aligned in the cross track direction, such as a head has two readers at 816 and 820 or 821. One of the readers 816 is aligned in down track direction to one of the writers 811, and another reader 820 is aligned to writer 812 in down track direction. For both readers aligned in down track direction, multiple play back signal maybe collected for a given track, and ISI and ITI cancellation can be used to improve recording system signal to noise ratio.
In another embodiment, there is only one reader and that reader is aligned in down track direction with one of the writers, such as in location 816 or 820, or can be locate at 818, in between the writers 811 and 812 in the cross track direction. In another embodiment, there are more than one readers and the readers located among location 816, 817, 818, 819, 820, 821 in any combination. In another embodiment, the temperature sensor 814 is located at the ABS and next to the reader 816 or 818 within a couple of micrometers.
In an embodiment, the heater 830 may have three contact pads or leads 831, 832 and 833 respectively and consist of two active heating element 834 and 835. When in operation, the shared leads 832 may have electric current passing through, to 831 or 833. Depend on which part has current passing through, the heater may push different part of the head to be the close point with respect to the media. For example, if heating element 834 is aligned in down track direction with respect to the writer 811 in
In an embodiment, the two writers in PMR head can be different in terms of write pole width, front shield gap, side shield gap, yoke width, write pole shape or the writer break point as well as ABS shape, such as the wall angle as illustrated in
The NFT, typically has an energy radiation end, absorbs optical energy and couple the electric magnetic energy into the media as it gets close to the media surface, through the energy radiation end, typically defined as NFT peg 941. Due to the requirements to maintain high coupling efficiency and low power loss, the NFT peg can be in solid rod shape based on plasmonic materials such as Au, Ag, Cu or alloys, or it can be based on core-shell structure where the center of the peg may consist of other transition or basic metallic materials such as Ta, W, Re, Os, Mo, Tc, Ru, Rh, Ir, Pt, Pd, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni and their alloys to improve hardness such that the reliability of the head can be improved.
The embodiments were chosen and described to best explain the principles of the invention and its practical application to persons who are skilled in the art. As various modifications, could be made to the exemplary embodiments, as described above with reference to the corresponding illustrations, without departing from the scope of the invention, it is intended that all matter contained in the foregoing description and shown in the accompanying drawings shall be interpreted as illustrative rather than limiting. Thus, the breadth and scope of the present invention should not be limited by any of the above-described exemplary embodiments, but should be defined only in accordance with the following claims appended hereto and their equivalents.
Modifications and variations may be made to the disclosed embodiments while remaining within the spirit and scope of the method, system and apparatus. The implementations described above and other implementations are within the scope of the following claims.