IEEE Magnetics Society
Santa Clara Valley Chapter
Meeting Presentation Summary

Tuesday, October 25^th, 2011
Fourth Tuesday, not the usual third Tuesday

Western Digital, 1710 Automation Parkway, San Jose, CA
Directions and Map
Cookies, Conversation & Pizza too at 7:00 P.M.
Presentation at 7:30 P.M.

Tentative
Evolution of perpendicular magnetic recording media and upcoming challenges

Gerardo Bertero, Ph.D,
Western Digital Corp.

Abstract

     Since the 2005 commercial introduction of perpendicular magnetic recording in hard disk drives, the recording areal density has increased by a factor of 5 and it is likely to reach a factor of 10 on current technology extension before new paradigms need to be invoked. From the media perspective, significant structural evolution took place to enable such areal density growth. Surprisingly, however, most of this growth has occurred with little change in the media grain size. This loss of scaling in such an important media feature cannot continue much further and imparts great pressure for developing new materials and processes to address obvious shortcomings. Similar to the grain size example, scaling of all other media features require much needed innovation. In this talk, we will discuss some of the most relevant evolutionary changes in PMR media, the short-term challenges required for extending current technology and new challenges associated with future technology candidates such as energy assisted recording and bit patterned media.

Copy Of Presentation

Biography

Gerardo Bertero, Ph.D, has over 16 years experience working in the magnetic recording industry. In 1994, he Joined Komag, Inc. in San Jose, California, now the Magnetic Media Division of Western Digital Co. where he served as Vice President in R&D developing advanced magnetic recording media. Currently, Dr. Bertero holds a Senior Director position in the Advanced Technology Office of Western Digital Corporation performing research in advanced magnetic media and heads topics. He specializes in the synthesis, performance and characterization of magnetic materials and thin film structures, including hard and soft magnets as well as overcoat development. He has published numerous technical papers and has given multiple talks at conferences, seminars and short courses. Dr. Bertero served as conference chair of TMRC 2004 and has assisted in the organization of numerous related conferences and symposia. He graduated in 1986 with an Engineering degree in Metallurgy from the Catholic University of Cordoba and in 1989 with a Master of Science degree in Materials Science and Engineering from Vanderbilt University. In 1995 he obtained his Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from Stanford University where he worked on Co/Pt and related high anisotropy metallic multilayer structures. He is a member of the IEEE Magnetics Society where he also served as a Society’s Technical Advisor and as chair of the IEEE Santa Clara Valley chapter. He holds 14 issued patents.

Contact:

• Gerardo Bertero, Ph.D,
• Western Digital Corp.
• Gerardo[dot]Bertero[at]wdc[dot]com