Fujitsu claims HDD patterned media breakthrough

Fujitsu Computer Products of America Inc. announced that the joint collaboration among Yamagata Fujitsu Ltd, Fujitsu Laboratories Ltd and Kanagawa Academy of Science and Technology (KAST) has achieved the basic read/write capability of ideally "ordered" alumina nanoholes on a 2.5-inch magnetic disk with a flying head.

In January 2007, Fujitsu announced 1Tbit per square-inch technology, a breakthrough for future HDD capacity expansion. At that time, one-dimensionally aligned alumina nanohole patterns with 25nm pitch were produced to support 1Tbit per square-inch bit recording density.

This time, Fujitsu has successfully created ideally "ordered" alumina nanohole patterns for isolated bit-by-bit recording on a large disk area by establishing an innovative fabrication process, and confirmed the basic read/write capability in each individual nanohole of the patterned media using a flying head on a rotating disk. Using perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR) processes, the patterned alumina nanohole media was fabricated using nano-imprint lithography, anodic oxidation and cobalt electrodeposition at a density of 100nm pitch nanoholes that was suitable to currently available head technology.

"Fujitsu is the first company to demonstrate read/write signals in individual ideally ordered alumina nanohole using a flying head for measurement," said David James, VP, advanced product engineering, Fujitsu Computer. "With the growing demand for hard drives with high capacities, especially in small form factors, 1Tbit per square-inch would enable potential storage capacities of up to 1.2Tbyte on a 2-platter 2.5-inch drive. We expect this breakthrough to provide revolutionary changes for various IT and consumer applications."