Measurements of the write error rate in bit patterned magnetic recording at 100–320 Gb/in2

We demonstrate a technique for measuring the intrinsic bit-error-rate as a function of write misregistration in bit patterned media. We examine the recording performance at bit densities of 100, 200, and 320 Gigabits per square inch (Gb/in2) and find that the on-track write misregistration margin for error rates below 10−4 is ∼1/4 of a bit length for all three densities. We demonstrate two-dimensional recording at sub 10−4 bit error rate at 100 and 200 Gb/in2 and with a 10−3 bit error rate at 320 Gb/in2.