Technologies for magnetic tape recording at 100Gb/in2 and beyond

Magnetic tape systems provide high reliability storage at a low total cost of ownership and are well suited for the long term storage of less frequently accessed data. The current explosive growth rate of digital data is driving demand for cost effective storage technologies and has resulted in a renaissance in applications for tape systems. Current state of the art tape systems operate with areal densities up to ~6 Gb/in
²
and provide cartridge capacities up to 10TB. The future success of tape systems depends on continued areal density and capacity scaling to maintain or increase the current cost advantage of tape over competing technologies. In this work we describe a set of technologies that enable the scaling of tape recording to areal densities of 100 Gb/in
²
and beyond.