Hitachi Global Storage Technologieshas developed the world's smallest read-head technology for
hard disc drives, which is expected to quadruple current storage
capacity limits to four Tbytes on a desktop hard drive and one
Tbytes on a notebook hard drive.
Called "current perpendicular-to-the-plane giant
magnetoresistive" (CPP-GMR) heads, Hitachi's new technology is
expected to be implemented in the first shipped products from 2009,
with wider availability from 2011.
Hitachi is presenting its system at the 8th Perpendicular
Magnetic Recording Conference (PMRC 2007) in Tokyo this week.
Hitachi GST has developed high-output technology and
noise-reduction technology for the CPP-GMR head.
A high electron-spin-scattering magnetic film material was used
in the CPP-GMR layer to increase the signal output from the head,
and new technology for damage-free fine patterning and noise
suppression was developed.
As a result, the signal-to-noise ratio, an important factor in
determining the performance of a head, was drastically
improved.