Dual-stripe MR heads for one gigabit per inch square recording density

The dual-stripe MR head configuration has advantages such as high signal amplitude, symmetrical waveform, symmetrical cross-track profile and thermal asperity immunity. We have designed, fabricated and tested dual-stripe MR heads for 1 Gb/in/sup 2/ areal density. Small read gap-length (0.28 /spl mu/m), narrow track width (2 /spl mu/m read/3 /spl mu/m write), low fly height (1.4 /spl mu/in) and planarized shared poles are the key design parameters. Test results of these heads have shown typical isolated-pulse amplitude of 800 /spl mu/V/sub p-p/, positive-negative peak amplitude ratio less than 10%, symmetrical track-profiles, and good stability. Using a PRML channel, we have demonstrated a linear bit density of 150 kbpi and a track density of 6700 tpi. The off-track capability is about 0.6 /spl mu/m at the error rate of 10/sup -7/.