Direct Measurement of Magnetic Timing Jitter in Writers

Non-repeatable positioning of transitions in the media (jitter) is one of the primary limiting factors in achieving higher linear density in magnetic recording. In a typical magnetic recording system, the primary sources of jitter are due to the finite grain size and the switching field distribution of the grains in the media. These contributions to jitter are generally referred to as the "written-in" contributions [1] . However, if the system that delivers the write field to the media itself has jitter, as all real-world systems will, then this "timing jitter" will also contribute to the total written-in jitter.