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Big Data and Cloud Storage --- A Recording Head Perspective

Herbert LinVP, Heads R&D, Western Digital

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Ubiquitous Data Needs --- A Personal Reflection

The owner plans to The owner plans to The owner plans to The owner plans to

increase his online increase his online increase his online increase his online

storage due to his storage due to his storage due to his storage due to his

expanded business expanded business expanded business expanded business

� Last week while vacationing in Hawaii, we stayed in an off the grid tree house in the middle of tropical forest� Access by dirt road

� Solar power

� Rain water collection

� Recycled material + tree branches

� No Phone/Cable/Internet

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� Small

� A 6” wafer has ~ 50,000 Devices

� A slider weights ~ 0.6 mg

� Critical dimensions smaller than semi-conductor

�Critical

� Provide write and read function

�Complicated

� > 60 layer of Masks

� > 800 critical wafer process steps

� Vulnerable

� ~ 60 miles/hour

� ~ 2 nm of clearance

� Equivalent to flying from San Francisco to New

York (>4000km) at a height of ~30 mm

� No birds in the air, no trees on the ground, no

waves over any water, no houses, no mountains

Fun Facts About Heads

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100 110Production Year

1E-3

1E-2

1E-1

1E+0

1E+1

1E+2

1E+3

1E+4

1E+5

1E+6

HDDProducts

IndustryLab Demos

Areal Density Perspective

AMR Head

60 70 80 90 2000 10

60% CGR

100% CGR

PerpendicularRecording

105

104

103

102

106

10

1

10-1

10-2

10-3

25% CGR

(First Hard Disk Drive)

Thin Film Head

200 Million X

Increase

Thin Film Media

PRML Channels

GMR Heads

40% CGRPR Projection

TuMR Heads

AFC Media

4

Head --- a Significant Driver for Areal DensityA

rea

l D

en

sity

Me

ga

bit

s/in

2

Page ���� 4

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� Next major technology for AD extendibility with minimal system impacts.

� Heat Assisted Magnetic Recording uses continuous recording media which has good thermal stability at room temperature

Heat Assisted Magnetic Recording (HAMR)

To record on this type of media we must first heat the media until it becomes writeable with conventional recording fields

Other forms of energy assist are also being explored

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Challenges: HDD is on a steeper slope for CD (critical dimension) shrinkageOpportunities: Introduction of new cost effective equipment for storage industry

Critical Dimension Trend

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AD growth requirements continuously drive wafer process complexity on the same magnitude as semiconductor industry

Wafer Mask Layer Increases

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Development Cycle and Capital Investment

AD Growth >30%����HAMR needs to launch

AD Growth Slows� More heads/disks per HDD� More Capex $$

• Long Cycle time• Code ---- Days• Disk ---- Weeks• Head --- Months

• High CapEx

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�Storage demand is ubiquitous

�Off-the-grid does not equate off-the-cloud

�Magnetic head technology has been and will continue to be a key driver to sustained growth

�Next technology is Heat (Energy) assisted

�Leading edge process complexity will continue to be a trademark of head development

�Critical talent is more important than ever

�Development cycle time and intensive capital investment require critical business decision-making

Summary

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Thank You