In this study, multi-level joint-track readback scheme is proposed for interlaced magnetic recording (IMR) with write synchronization. IMR typically provides an areal density capability (ADC) gain by pre-fixing the recording orders as interlaced and customizing the write configurations for neighboring tracks, such that narrow and wide tracks are interlaced. On the other hand, due to the unbalanced track widths in IMR, readback waveforms by a single wide reader covering two adjacent tracks can be decomposed into four distinguishable levels, when tracks are recorded in a synchronous manner. By taking advantage of the four level (4L) detecting capability, the single reader based dual-track readback (SR-DTR) IMR has a potential to provide a doubled data rate (2X) retrieval. For the feasibility test of the SR-DTR IMR, numerical simulations are conducted for bit-error rate (BER) evaluations by the micro-pixelated magnetic recording channel model. Partial response equalizer and Viterbi detector are modified for 4L readback waveforms, and are investigated with cross-track read offsets under various track and linear densities. BER bathtub investigation results show the feasibility of 2X retrievals by the SR-DTR IMR approach.
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