A Comparative Study of Perpendicular Media

Three types of perpendicular recording media were compared using simulations. Exchange coupled composite (ECC) type media could support minimum track pitches up to 18 nm less than a single layer medium, allowing significantly higher areal recording densities. The recording performance of all media was highly susceptible to grain-to-grain variations of uniaxial anisotropy K
_u
and, in the case of ECC media, to variations in the interlayer coupling strength. Areal densities of around 500 Gb/in
²
should be achievable using current technologies, higher densities require improved manufacturing tolerances