Stefan Dinse / Alamy
The computer hard discs of the future will have a higher data-storage capacity through the clever use of heating or microwave energy. Researchers at Toshiba have discovered a stepping-stone solution that may help pave the way to those next-generation discs.
A hard disc consists of spinning platters covered in microscopic magnetic particles known as grains. The magnetic orientation of a small cluster of grains determines whether a single bit – the smallest unit of computational information – is a 0 or a 1.
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These grain clusters have become smaller and smaller as manufacturers have sought higher data density. But if they are too small, then very little energy is needed to change their magnetic orientation, leaving bits susceptible to accidental flipping from 0 to 1, or vice versa, and damaging the data on the disc.
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IMAGE: Comparison between conventional HDD write head and newly proposed flux control HDD write head. In the flux control HDD write head, the magnetization of the FC device is reversed against. view more
Credit: Hirofumi Suto
WASHINGTON, March 9, 2021 Researchers at Toshiba Corporation in Japan have studied the operation of a small device fabricated in the write gap of a hard disk drive s write head to extend its recording density. The device, developed by HWY Technologies, is based on a design concept known as microwave-assisted magnetic recording, or MAMR.
This technology, reported in the
Journal of Applied Physics, by AIP Publishing, uses a microwave field generator known as a spin-torque oscillator. The spin-torque oscillator emits a microwave field causing the magnetic particles of the recording medium to wobble the way a spinning top does. This makes them much easier to flip over when the write head applies a recording magnetic field in the writing