Basic technology of "microwave assisted magnetic recording method" leading to large capacity HDD exceeding conventional limit is developed

Along with the spread of high-capacity content such as high-definition movies, many PC users desire to increase the capacity of HDDs, HDDs adopting the current perpendicular magnetic recording system are limited in capacity increase, so now Every company is looking for a recording method that realizes further capacity increase.

Meanwhile, newly "Microwave assisted magnetic recording systemIt was announced that the basic technology for high capacity HDD using the recording method called "HDD" was developed.

Details are as below.
Developed basic technology of microwave assisted recording for next generation ultra high density HDD
Confirm rewrite of magnetic information using spin torque element mountable in magnetic head

According to the announcement by the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization and Hitachi, independent of the limitations of the conventional magnetic recording method,Up to 550 gigabits per square inchDeveloped microwave assisted magnetic recording system (microwave assisted recording) "which is expected as a method of dramatically extending from 1 terabit (1000 gigabit) to 1 terabit (1000 gigabit) or more, and confirmed the principle experimentally .

"Microwave assisted recording" makes it easy to locally invert the magnetization of a recording medium by using a "magnetic resonance phenomenon" in which the magnetization of a magnetic substance causes a kind of resonance with respect to a specific frequency, and records magnetic information Although it was necessary to generate a high frequency magnetic field of "microwave band" in the recording method, there was no case that "oscillating element" for generating a magnetic field was actually mounted on the head part of the HDD about.

And this time, we developed a "spin torque oscillation element" that can be mounted on the head part and experimentally confirm that magnetic information can be recorded on the recording medium by using this element experimentally. In the simulation using a computer, "Microwave assisted recording" was used as it was confirmed that a recording density of 3 terabits per square inch can be realized by using the principle of microwave assisted recording If HDD is realized, the capacity will be up to 6 times the current HDD.

Incidentally, Hitachi is a candidate for the next generation recording method to realize large capacity HDD, "Thermally assisted magnetic recording methodWe are also studying a recording method called "Recording method", which is expected to be able to raise the recording capacity per square inch to 4 terabits maximum.