Exploratory experiments in recording on sputtered magnetic tape at an areal density of 148 Gb/in²

A sputter deposited CoPtCr-SiO2 perpendicular recording media with excellent orientation was successfully grown on a thin polyamide film. Using 32-channel GMR tape heads and advanced hard-disk drive heads, the recording performance and durability of this media was investigated. These studies demonstrated an unprecedented broadband signal-to-noise ratio of 17 dB at 896 kb/in using a 77 nm-wide TMR reader, corresponding to an estimated 148 Gb/in ^{2} recording density, and provided a preliminary assessment of durability exceeding current tape media specifications.