6.7 Gb/In(2) Recording Areal Density On Barium Ferrite Tape

We investigated the performance of a barium ferrite tape medium in linear tape recording, using a giant-magnetoresistive read head of 0.5 mu m track width. A linear density of 400 kbpi with an error rate of 6 x 10(-5) was demonstrated based on measured recording data and a simulated channel with advanced noise predictive maximum likelihood detection schemes. Using a timing-based servo format that reduces the position error signal (PES) due to medium jitter and servo-writer velocity variations, we achieved a PES of 0.07 mu m standard deviation and a maximum PES (in a 10-s interval) of 0.35 mu m. This PES magnitude allows the writing and reading of 1.5-mu m 2 tracks at 400 kbpi, for an equivalent areal density of 6.7 Gb/in(2).