Cambridge scientists said that graphene will increase the storage capacity of HDD by 10 times
Scientists from the University of Cambridge collaborated with teams from the University of Exeter, India, Switzerland, Singapore, and the United States to publish a research report on using graphene to increase HDD capacity tenfold. The special application of graphene in HDD is for carbon-based overcoats (COC), which is a coating used to protect the disk from mechanical damage and corrosion, and COC occupies a large part of the required space between the magnetic head and the data platter.
“Obudowa USB na dysk HDD” by download.net.pl is licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0
Since 1990, COC has dropped from 12.5nm to about 3nm. Using the most advanced commercial COC means that about 1TB of data per square inch can be loaded on the HDD. According to Hexus, researchers at the University of Cambridge replaced the original COC with one to four layers of graphene. This change can increase the capacity of the HDD by more than ten times. Graphene provides many benefits in this outer coating application, including corrosion resistance, low friction, wear resistance, hardness, lubricant compatibility, and surface smoothness.
Another important function of graphene COC is that it can be used well with Heat-Assisted Magnetic Recording (HAMR) technology. This capacity-enhancing technology does not match certain COC materials, while graphene performs very well at high temperatures. Cambridge researchers believe that the results of the study show the feasibility of large-scale applications of graphene in cutting-edge technologies. For today’s society where the data demand is increasing, the use of graphene COC materials is undoubtedly very valuable.
In February 2020, Showa Denko (SDK) announced the next generation of new magnetic thin films, which will be made of iron-platinum (Fe-Pt) alloys to make thin-film magnetic layers, and are currently preparing for commercial production. Showa Denko’s new magnetic film will be combined with HAMR technology and is expected to increase the density to 6TB per square inch.
