SBIR Phase I: Thermally Durable Plasmonic Near Field Transducer for Heat Assisted Magnetic Recording

这项小企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力是启用超高容量磁盘驱动器。全球数字数据的爆炸式增长以及存储这些数据的需求继续推动着对磁盘存储的需求。每年大约销售5.5亿个驱动器，价值约为350亿美元。热辅助磁记录产生的更高存储密度将降低每tb的存储成本，并大大减少数据中心的物理和热足迹。驱动器容量增加10倍意味着任何给定存储需求所需的驱动器数量减少约90%。这将大大降低设施公用事业成本和与住房、供电和冷却数据中心相关的排放。这项小企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目旨在解决下一代超高容量磁盘驱动器的热辅助磁记录（HAMR）技术的关键问题。HAMR技术可实现的高数据存储密度有望通过更大的密度从根本上提高驱动器存储容量。然而，耐用的近场传感器（nft）是关键部件，必须在设备商业化之前实现。具有耐火性能的等离子体材料是耐用nft的天然候选材料。深入全面地了解纳米级等离子体陶瓷的热循环负荷、氧化、化学计量、晶体结构和等离子体性能之间的联系需要充分的科学和实验支持。将采用数值模拟、光学表征和先进的电子显微镜技术来研究具有耐火性能的等离子体陶瓷作为HAMR技术可靠的nft的性能。

The broader impacts/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project are to enable ultra-high capacity disk drives. The explosion of global digital data and the need to store it is continuing to drive demand for disk storage. Approximately 550 million drives are sold each year with a value of about $35B. The greater storage densities created by heat assisted magnetic recording will drive down the cost of storage per Terabyte and greatly reduce the physical and thermal footprints in data centers. A 10X greater drive capacity translates to an approximate 90% reduction in the number of drives required for any given storage requirement. This will greatly reduce facility utility costs and emissions associated with housing, powering and cooling data centers.This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project aims to solve critical issues in heat assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) technology for next-generation of ultra-high capacity disk drives. High data storage densities achievable with HAMR technology are expected to radically improve drive storage capacities through much greater densities. However, durable near field transducers (NFTs) are critical components that must be realized before commercialization of the devices is possible. Plasmonic materials with refractory properties are natural candidates for durable NFTs. In-depth comprehensive understanding of the connection between thermal cyclic load, oxidation, stoichiometry, crystalline structure and plasmonic properties for the plasmonic ceramics at nanoscale requires sufficient scientific and experimental support. Numerical simulations, optical characterization and advanced electron microscopy techniques will be employed to investigate the performance of plasmonic ceramics with refractory properties as reliable NFTs for HAMR technology.