There are two important trends in the modern information society, including digital networking and ubiquitous environment. Thus it is strongly required to develop new information storage devices such as high density storages to match the increased data capacity and small size storage devices to be applied to the mobile multimedia electronics. So far, many approaches have been studied for the high density memory, including the holographic memory, super-RENS and near-field recording using solid immersion lens (SIL) or nano-probe for the ODD (Optical Disk Drive) system, and the perpendicular magnetic recording and heat-assisted magnetic recording for the HDD (Hard Disk Drive) system. In addition, new mobile storage devices have been prepared using 0.85" HDD and 30mm ODD systems from a lot of foreign and domestic companies and institutes. In this paper, the recent technology trend for the next generation information storage system is summarized to offer a research motivation and encouragement to new researchers in this field with an emphasis on the technical issues of the increase of data capacity and decrease of device size.

This paper investigates the effects of disk thickness and Pemto slider on PES(position error signal) for high TPI(track per inch) drives above 150kTPI at early stage of their development. In order to reduce the disk flutter which becomes a dominant contributor to the TMR, the thicker disks with both 63 and 69mi1 have been used. Also, PES of a Pemto slider with thinner thickness than Pico slider has been estimated to decrease the conversion factor of disk motion in axial direction to head off-track motion. A frequency-domain PES estimation and prediction tool has been developed via measurement of disk flutter and HSA(head stack assembly) forced vibration. It has been validated by the measured PES in drive level. Based on the model and measurement of disk flutter, PES of a drive with the thicker disk and Pemto slider is predicted and their impact is investigated.

We have developed an optical pickup head for blu-ray disc. We have adopted a liquid crystal panel to compensate thickness difference of cover layer. By disposing DVD/CD compatible objective inside the BD objective in disc radial direction, we could realize a backward compatibility. Furthermore we have inserted a polarization diffractive optical element to reduce the influence from the other layer in BD dual layer.

We report some recent results in the rewritable Blu-ray Disc with enhanced overwrite cyclability by using the growth dominant eutectic based Ge(Sb70Te30)+Sb recording layer, GeN interface layer and write strategy optimization. We have developed phase-change optical media with appropriate write strategy for 36(i.e., 1X)-72Mbps(i.e., 2X) dual speed Blu-ray Disc system and fur the future high speed optical data storage. For recording layer, eutectic-based Ge(Sb70Te30)+Sb material was used and Sb/Te ratio and Ge content were optimized to obtain proper erasability and archival stability of recorded amorphous marks. The recording layer is wrapped up in GeN interface layers to obtain overwrite cyclability and higher crystallization speed. In addition, we designed appropriate write strategy so called Time-Shifted Multipulse (TSMP) write strategy where starting position of multipulse parts are shined from reference clock. With this write strategy, the jitter characteristics of the disc was improved and we found that leading edge jitter was improved much more than trailing edge jitter in 1X-2X speed recording. Finally, we investigated the higher speed feasibility of 144Mbps(i.e., 4X) by adopting some elemental doping to the eutectic based Ag-In-Sb-Te recording layer and structural optimization of constitution layers in Blu-ray Disc. In the paper, we report the effect of Sn addition for the feasibility of higher speed recording. The addition of Sn shows increases of the crystallization speed of phase change recording layer.

We developed an optical pickup system which is used fer Blu-ray Disc. A liquid crystal element was used to make compensation for spherical aberration. Spherical aberration is a difficult problem in the optical pickup system for Blu-ray Disc. To reduce the effects of wavelength variation from the laser source, we designed a diffraction optical element. We took a measurement of all of the parts used to make a pickup system and validated the performance of each part. Then, we made a performance test fur the optical pickup system which we developed for Blu-ray Disc and the results were satisfactory.

The research topic of super-RENS technology is shifting from the signal intensity (CNR; Carrier to Noise Ratio) to the signal uniformity (Jitter or bER). To achieve an uniform signal characteristics, it is important to reduce signal fluctuation in a super-RENS disc. In this study, we investigated the relation between signal fluctuation and low frequency noise (LFN), and analyzed LFN increase in recording and readout processes. It was found that signal fluctuation had a close relationship with the LFN. Also, it was found that the recorded mark shape such a bubble type and high readout power increased the LFN in recording and readout process of a super-RENS disc. So, using non-bubble type recording material and low super-resolution readout material, we markedly improved the LFN in a super-RENS disc.

In order to measure signal quality of optical disc such as CD or DVD, jitter is used traditionally. The signal attained from a disc by optical pick-up is processed by analog circuits. And then, binary signal can be obtained by using proper silcer. After the signal is changed into binary format, jitter is calculated as a time difference between the binary signal and the reference time. Jitter is used to express the signal quality. In this paper, a new method that is able to offer more precise measurement of the signal quality fur high density optical disc than the jitter is proposed. We named it LPSNR (Level Peak Signal to Noise Ratio). The relationship between bER (bit error rate) and LPSNR is shown in the paper.

Pseudo-Near Field Recording (Pseudo-NFR) system is proposed to prevent contamination and oxidation of media surface occurred in conventional NFR systems. To solve these critical problems of the NFR systems, we investigate the optimal thickness of cover layer for Pseudo NFR. This paper presents the theoretical analysis for cover layer thickness based on the measured length of dust particle and numerical simulation for the temperature distribution using Finite Difference Time Domain (FDTD) method and heat conduction equation. To verify the simulation results, we conduct and compare simulation results in case of far field MO recording and near field MO recording. A measured dust particle length in general environment was mostly less than $20{\mu}m$, and the optimal thickness of cover layer is $30{\mu}m$ in this case. Based on the designed optimal cover layer thickness, temperature distribution is simulated to have $800{\~}850^{\circ}C$.

This study proposes a design methodology to determine the optimum configurations of the optical flying head (OFH) for near-field recording systems. Since the OFH requires stricter static and dynamic characteristics of slider air-bearings within an optical tilt tolerance over the entire recording band, an optimum design to keep the focusing and tracking ability stable is essential. The desired flying characteristics considered in this study are to minimize the variation in flying height between the SIL and the disk from a target value, satisfying the restriction of the minimum flying height, to keep the pitch and roll angles within an optical tilt tolerance, and to ensure a higher air-bearing stiffness. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed design methodology by showing that the static and dynamic flying characteristics of the optimally designed OFH are enhanced in comparison with those of the initial. The gap between the SIL and the disk can be kept at less than 100 nm even if the optical tilt tolerance of the SIL is considered.

In this paper, a new silicon nitride cantilever integrated with silicon heater and piezoelectric sensor has been firstly developed to improve the uniformity of the initial bending and the mechanical stability of the cantilever array for thermo-piezoelectric SPM(scanning probe microscopy) -based data storages. This nitride cantilever shows thickness uniformity less than $2\%$. Data bits of 40 nm in diameter were recorded on PMMA film. The sensitivity of the piezoelectric sensor was 0.615 fC/nm after poling the PZT layer. For high speed operation, 128${\times}$128 probe array was developed.

The Blu-ray disc as a next generation high density optical medium uses an objective lens of high numerical aperture(NA 0.85) and blue laser in order to increase the recording density. The double layer is also useful for doubling the density. The spherical aberration of Blu-ray disc is very sensitive to the thickness of the disk because of high numerical aperture. This paper suggests a method to compensate the spherical aberration caused by the change of disk thickness, by using the Liquid Crystal lens instead of the Liquid Crystal panel. It was possible to develop both the LC panel generating the optical phase difference and LC lens changing the optical power. In this paper, we analyzed the aberration performance and a position sensitivity of the two type LC elements when the samples deviate from the optical axis of the objective lens. The results of applying this analysis show that the LC lenses rather than the LC panels have a significant assembling tolerance. The theoretical characteristics of the two elements are calculated and compared with the measurement data.

This work presents the feasibility of shunt damping far vibration suppression of the rotating HDD disk-spindle system using piezoelectric bimorph. A target vibration mode which significantly restricts the recording density increment of the drive is determined through modal analysis and a piezoelectric bimorph is designed to suppress unwanted vibration. After deriving the two-dimensional generalized electromechanical coupling coefficient of the shunted drive, the shunt damping of the system is predicted by simulating the displacement transmissibility using the coefficient. In addition, optimal design process using sensitivity analysis is undertaken in order to improve the shunt damping of the system. The effectiveness of the proposed methodology is verified through experimental implementation by observing the vibration characteristics of the rotating disk-spindle system in frequency domain.

Rewritable optical disk is one of the essential data storage media in these days, which takes advantage of the different optical properties in the amorphous and crystalline states of phase change materials. As well known, data transfer rate is one of the most important parameter of the phase change optical disks, which is mostly limited by the crystallization speed of recording media. Therefore, we doped Sn/Bi to $Ge_2Sb_2Te_5$ alloy in order to improve the crystallization speed and investigated the dependence of phase change characteristics on Sn/Bi doping concentration. The Sn/Bi doped $Ge_2Sb_2Te_5$ thin film was deposited by RF magnetron co-sputtering system and phase change characteristics were investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD), static tester, UV-visible spectrophotometer, electron probe microanalysis (EPMA), inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer (ICP-MS) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). Optimum doping concentration of Bi and Sn were 5${\~}$6 at.$\%$ and the minimum time for crystallization was below than 20 ns. This improvement is correlated with the simple crystalline structure of Sn/Bi doped $Ge_2Sb_2Te_5$ and the reduced activation barrier arising from Sn/Bi doping. The results indicate that Sn/Bi might play an important role in the transformation kinetics of phase change materials..

According to recent trend, hard disk drive(HDD) has been smaller and less weight. Therefore, it needs new method of writing position information. In this thesis, a new controller that is suitable for SSW is proposed. The controller accepted SSW technology that is used to write position information in current HDD industry. The important condition to perform SSW is to reach constant velocity decided from the head velocity profile as fast as possible. The constant velocity decides the positional accuracy of spiral pattern and setup time decides the capacity of HDD. The head velocity profile as a reference signal must be designed not to cause resonance mode. The proposed controller was designed with consideration of these 3 elements, and it properly works for SSW. The velocity profile designed with SMART control not only minimizes the jerk, but also does not cause the resonance mode of a plant. After designing a conventional PID controller, it compared with electrical spring technique and ZPET technique.

The generation of fine relics of suspensions is a significant interest as it holds the key to the fabrication of electronic devices. These processes offer opportunities for miniaturization of multilayer circuits, for production of functionally graded materials, ordered composites and far small complex-shaped components. Some novel printing methods of depositing ceramic and metal droplets were suggested in recent years. In an electro-hydrodynamic printing, the metallic capillary nozzle can be raised to several kilovolts with respect to the infinite ground plate or pin-type electrode positioned a few millimeters from the nozzle tip. Depending on the electrical and physical properties of the liquid, for a given geometry, it Is possible to generate droplets in any one of three modes, dripping, cone-jet and multi-jet. In this experiment, an alumina suspension flowing through a nozzle was subjected to electro-hydrodynamic printing using pin-type electrodes in the cone-jet mode at different applied voltages. The pin-type electrodes of 1, 100, 1000${\mu}m$ in diameter were used to form fine ceramic patterns onto the substrates. Various feature sizes with applied voltages and electrode diameters were measured. The feature sizes increased with the electrode diameter and applied voltages. The feature size was as fine as $30 {\mu}m$.