Abstract
A cylindrical magnetic storage system was developed, using inclined-pad-type heads and perpendicular double-layered media with a CoPtCr-SiO2 recording layer. The inclined ABS (air-bearing surface) slider has an inclined leading pad formed on the leading edge of the slider and a trailing pad formed on the trailing edge of the slider to generate an air-bearing force. The fabricated head exhibits flying stability on a rotating cylindrical medium. A composite recording layer, CoPtCr-SiO2/Ru/Pt/Ta deposited on a rotating cylindrical substrate with a soft magnetic underlayer (SUL) shows high coercivity over 5 kOe, and squareness ratio of around 1, which are almost the same characteristics as the same composite recording layer on a conventional disk substrate with SUL. The fundamental read/write characteristics of CoPtCr-SiO2/CoZrNb perpendicular double-layered cylindrical media were measured using a merged-type GMR head with an inclined-pad-type slider designed for use with cylindrical media. The envelope of the head output did not show any modulation, large spike pulses, or thermal asperity associated with contact with the cylindrical medium. Isolated waveforms with sufficient symmetry were also obtained.
