Exploratory Experiments in Recording on Sputtered Magnetic Tape at an Areal Density of 148 Gb/in $^{\textbf 2}$

A sputter deposited CoPtCr–SiO
₂
perpendicular recording media with excellent orientation was successfully grown on a thin polyamide film. Using 32-channel GMR tape heads and advanced hard-disk drive heads, the recording performance and durability of this media was investigated. These studies demonstrated an unprecedented broadband signal-to-noise ratio of 17 dB at 896 kb/in using a 77 nm-wide TMR reader, corresponding to an estimated 148 Gb/in
$^{2}$
recording density, and provided a preliminary assessment of durability exceeding current tape media specifications.