Hitachi, Ltd. and Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (GST) have developed the smallest read-head technology for hard disk drives, which is expected to quadruple current storage capacity limits to four terabytes (TB) on a desktop hard drive and one TB on a notebook hard drive.
Researchers at Hitachi have successfully reduced existing recording heads by more than a factor of two to achieve new heads in the 30-50 nm range, which is up to 2,000 times smaller than the width of an average human hair (approx. 70-100 microns). Called current perpendicular-to-the-plane giant magnetoresistive (CPP-GMR) heads, Hitachi’s technology is expected to be implemented in shipping products in 2009 and reach its full potential in 2011.
Hitachi believes CPP-GMR heads will enable hard disk drive (HDD) recording densities of 500 gigabits per square inch (Gb/in2) to one terabit per square inch (Tb/in2), a quadrupling of today’s highest areal densities. Earlier this year, Hitachi GST delivered the industry’s first one-terabyte hard drive at148 Gb/in2; the company’s highest areal density shipping in products today is in the 200 Gb/in2 range. These products use existing head technology, called TMR2 (tunnel-magnetoresistive) heads. The recording head and media are the two key technologies controlling the miniaturization evolution and the exponential capacity growth of the HDD.
Hitachi, Ltd, www.hitachi.com.
Hitachi Global Storage Technologies, www.hitachigst.com.
