MULTILEVEL AND THREEDIMENSIONAL NANOMAGNETIC RECORDING - Bio-Inspired and Nanoscale Integrated Computing - page 182

Recording
transducer

Transducer
flying
direction

Recording
transducer

Transducer
flying
direction

N -layer media

Conventional media

~2 nm

10 − 20

Magnetization “up” and “down”

Figure 6.5. Comparison between a conventional recording systemwith recording
on a surface (left) and a proposed 3D or/and multilevel system with recording
across the thickness of the recording media.

6.2.4.4. Multilevel 3D Recording in Layman's Terms. The proposed
technology differs from the traditional approach because it deals with one surface
(of a magnetic recording media) only. It is proposed to use a third vertical
dimension to store information not only on the surface but also in the volume of
the recording media. In other words, the information is packed across the
thickness, as shown in Figure 6.5. As a result, more than one signal level would
be exploited to record, store, and retrieve information from the same unit surface
area of the recording media. This opens a new window of opportunities to develop
not only the most superior near-future data storage device (multilevel 3D (m3d)
drive) but also for a long future to exploit groundbreaking advantages of an
entirely new dimension.

6.2.4.5. Advantages

a. Simplicity
One of the advantages of this technology, at least at this early stage of
development, is its relative simplicity. This is due to the fact that the
proposed multilevel 3D magnetic recording has similarity with perpendi-
cular recording. Similar to perpendicular recording, the information, at
least at the initial stage, will be recorded perpendicular to the disk.
However, other media configurations should not be disregarded. For
example, longitudinally oriented media or media with the magnetization
tilted at some arbitrary angle may have some advantages perpendicular
media do not have. As the complexity of multilevel 3D recording system
increases with each next generation, it might become beneficial to switch to
one of the nonperpendicular modes.
b. Technological Superiority
As mentioned above, this is the only magnetic technology that relies on the use
of a third dimension to record, retrieve, and store information in a device. In
other words, the information will be recorded not only on a surface but also
across the thickness or in the volume of the recording media. As a result,