Drive level media thermal stability test

Media superparamagnetic effects are expected to limit the areal density for longitudinal recording. Extensive component level studies were performed on VSM/AGM/SQUID magnetic measurement equipment, and a HGA electrical spin-stand. It is important to quantify the media thermal stability at the drive level, and understand the ultimate influence on drive BER performance. This work has focused on building a drive level test platform for measuring amplitude decay rates, exploring the decay rate dependency at drive temperatures, bit density effects, and media M(r)t design. For the same type of magnetic alloy design, lower M(r)t media results in higher decay rate. Decay accelerates at higher temperatures, and lower M(r)t media has a higher temperature dependency. Drive level amplitude decay dependency on bit density is affected greatly by head characterization.