The rapidly increase in areal density of magnetic recording is placing very stringent requirements for signal to noise ratio (SNR). As the areal density grows, the track density increases and track pitch decreases substantially. As a result, the transition curvature and track edge noise becomes more severe. This imposes a barrier for improving SNR at higher densities. The discrete track media (DTM) [1,2,3] has been proposed to remedy the track edge effects through inter-track isolation, either physically or magnetically. The DTM is expected to have SNR advantages when compared to an equivalent conventional media with the same track density. In addition, the DTM might allow using recording heads with wider reader width and wider writer pole width. This might enable the drive manufacturers to use recording heads with relaxed head tolerances to improve manufacturing efficiency and yield. In this paper, the SNR performance of DTM is evaluated through micromagnetic simulation. The benefits of recording on DTM are discussed and compared to conventional media.
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