Full-track profile derivative method for track width measurements of magnetic recording head

For many years, micro-track profile has been used to measure magnetic read width (MRW) of MR sensor and it has been considered the standard method. As track pitch continues to decrease, it has become increasingly difficult to obtain a consistent narrow micro-track required by the accuracy of the micro-track profile method. A new method was discussed recently for measuring MRW with a wide written track to avoid the difficulties and uncertainties in the micro-track profile method. Since it required a wide writer to create the full-track profile, this approach can't be used conveniently. To remove that limitation, we introduce a new full track characterization algorithm. With this new algorithm, we can calculate magnetic write width (MWW) with side-reading correction as well as MRW from derivative of a full-track profile without requiring a very wide written track created by another head. This gives a practical mean in magnetic write and read width measurement for head characterization.