Multitrack reading scheme with single reader in BPMR systems

Abstract

In ultra-high track density magnetic recording such as bit-patterned media recording (BPMR), the narrow track reader is required to avoid the strong intertrack interference (ITI). However, the reduction of reader size to the track pitch is considerably difficult. Therefore, this paper proposes to use the multitrack reading scheme with the staggered island BPMR. The effects of the island size and position fluctuation are investigated. Then, two-dimensional (2D) decoding scheme will be considered to mitigate the reader's narrow track width requirement by oversampling technique. Moreover, both the threshold and Partial Response Maximum Likelihood (PRML) detection were also examined the system performance. Simulation results indicate that the proposed system outperforms the conventional reading system, especially for high areal density.