Three Typical Bit Position Patterns of Bit-Patterned Media Recording

Bit-patterned media recording (BPMR) is regarded as a promising candidate for next-generation magnetic storage systems in order to increase areal density. BPMR exhibits massive two-dimensional interference, however, that consists of horizontal intersymbol interference from neighboring bits and vertical intertrack interference (ITI) from adjacent tracks. In this letter, we investigate the performance of BPMR according to the spacing and position of magnetic islands when we use a partial-response maximum-likelihood detection scheme and low-density parity check code. We compare bit error rate performance when the islands are arranged in a regular array and when the islands are arranged in a staggered array. Simulation results show that substantially increased bit error rate performance can be achieved through the use of trigonal half-delayed layout island patterns that reduce the ITI.