Barium-Ferrite Particulate Media for High-Recording-Density Tape Storage Systems

The feasibility of data storage on magnetic tape at an areal recording density of 6.7 Gbit/in employing barium-ferrite (BaFe) particulate media was demonstrated in 2006 in a stringent demo. Recently, progress in BaFe media design has been made in three areas as compared with the medium used for the 6.7 Gbit/in² demo: i) by using ultrafine BaFe magnetic particles, achieving a reduction in particle volume from 2100 to 1800 nm³; ii) by increasing the perpendicular squareness ratio from 0.52 to 0.7; iii) by achieving a smoother tape surface, effectively reducing surface roughness from 1.7 to 0.8 nm. This paper describes the characteristics of the new BaFe particles and medium, and discusses their potential for achieving areal recording densities as high as 20 Gbit/in².