Fujitsu Announces Technology Breakthrough for Next-Generation Hard Disk Drive with Patterned Media

Fujitsu Europe Limited today announced the results of a joint collaboration by Yamagata Fujitsu Limited, Fujitsu Laboratories Limited, and Kanagawa Academy of Science and Technology (KAST) to create ideally “ordered” alumina nanohole patterned media. In a world first, Fujitsu has achieved the basic read/write capability of ideally ordered alumina nanoholes on a 2.5” magnetic disk with a flying head.

In January 2007, Fujitsu announced one Terabit/in2 technology, a breakthrough for future HDD capacity expansion. At that time, one-dimensionally aligned alumina nanohole patterns with 25nm pitch were produced to support one Terabit/in2 bit recording density. Now for the first time, Fujitsu has successfully created ideally “ordered” alumina nanohole patterns for isolated bit-by-bit recording on a large disk area by establishing an innovative fabrication process, and confirmed the basic read/write capability in each individual nanohole of the patterned media using a flying head on a rotating disk. Using Perpendicular Magnetic Recording (PMR) processes, the patterned alumina nanohole media was fabricated using nano-imprint lithography, anodic oxidation, and cobalt electrodeposition at a density of 100nm pitch nanoholes that was suitable to currently available head technology.

“This represents a major technological achievement towards the one Terabit/in2 mark and confirms Fujitsu’s leading position in the research and development of future storage technology, providing small form factor drives with high capacities and low energy use,” says Georg Dietsch, Director Fujitsu Storage Products Group EMEA. This achievement has been published in the July online version of the eminent technology journal, “Applied Physics Letters. Volume 91 Issue 2, July 9th 2007.”

The work on nanohole patterned media is supported by the “Research Program on Development of Innovative Technology” of the Japan Science and Technology Agency.