WD, a Western Digital company and storage industry leader, demonstrated its revolutionary heat assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) technology at the 2013 China (Ningbo) International Forum on Advanced Materials and Commercialization. WD's vice president of technology, Dr. William Cain, gave his presentation, 'Magnetic Hard Disk Media: Enabling High Density Data Storage,' on a PC powered by a fully enabled WD HAMR 2.5-inch hard drive.

"Analysts predict 25 trillion gigabytes of new data will be generated by 2020 and that average household storage needs in the U.S. will require as much as 3.3 TB by 2016," said Dr. Cain. "This tremendous growth in data requires continued increases in storage capacity and performance for the cloud, big data and consumer technologies. WD is focused on hard drive innovations that will enable future storage capabilities, and HAMR technology is a key step in the migration path."

HAMR technology may offer a solution for increasing areal density (AD) by magnetically recording data on high-stability media using laser thermal assistance. The technology shrinks data bits in a stable manner by briefly heating the disk surface during magnetic head recording. The method can increase data density by a factor of more than 5 and ultimately results in storage capacities as great as 4 terabits per square inch.

WD is addressing the challenges associated with HAMR technology, including designing media that manages the increasing complexities of concurrently meeting magnetic, thermal and optical requirements; laser light path integration; and head-disk interface reliability and lifetime.

Dr. Cain's presentation and discussion will be held Nov. 13th at 11:00 a.m. during the International Symposium on Magneto-electronic Materials and Devices.