INSIGHT to data storage — trends, technologies, products Fall 2002 Published by IDEMA®—the trade association for the data storage industry insideinsidewhat’s Alchemy and Rigorous Science: The 66 Evolution of Hard Disk Drives 1616 Highlights from DISKCON® USA 2222 Plasma Etching of TMR Stack Structures Windage Testing of HGAs at the 2626 Component Level ULTRASONICS Eliminate Damage To Sensitive Parts... Use Ceramically Enhanced Ultrasonics to Achieve .1 Submicron Cleanliness CREST ULTRASONICS SCOTCH ROAD • PO BOX 7266 • TRENTON, NJ 08628 • PHONE: 609-883-4000 • FAX: 609-883-6452 www.crest-ultrasonics.com contents Dr. Sally Bryant, Executive Director DISKCON USA 2002 remains a key event in the HDD industry. It’s the only "one-stop-shop" event in our industry that lets 6 attendees learn about new products and technologies, meet Alchemy and Rigorous with key suppliers, attend a world-class technical conference, Science: The Evolution of and hear from the leaders of the HDD industry. 60% of Hard Disk Drives attendees say they come to DISKCON to learn about new technologies, 48% to stay updated in data storage manufacturing techniques, and 29% attend because it improves their ability to do their job. Over 70% of attendees find it challenging or somewhat challenging to stay informed of new products and technologies 16 related to the HDD industry. Close to 90% of attendees feel that DISKCON USA does a Highlights from DISKCON good job of helping with that challenge. USA The Mark Geenen Technology for Youth Charity Golf Tournament raised almost $30,000 for Ronnie Lott’s All Stars Helping Kids charity. The money will go to Eastside Preparatory School in East Palo Alto. It is a huge boost for the school’s recent fund- raising drive. Thank you to all who participated; your generosity will make a tremendous 20 impact on the lives of many young people. Storage News For the first time ever at DISKCON USA, we offered a CEO Summit. This standing-room only event gave attendees the opportunity to hear from and ask questions of Bill Watkins of Seagate, Matt Massengill of Western Digital, Mike Cannon of Maxtor, Mike Cadigan of IBM, Ichiro Komura of Fujitsu, Wayne Fortun of Hutchinson Technology, and Ed Braun of 22 Veeco. Plasma Etching of TMR Stack Structures A BIG thank you to all who volunteered their time to make DISKCON USA such an outstanding event! While space does not permit a listing of everyone who volunteered their time at DISKCON, I would like to recognize the following people: Ed Grochowski, IBM, chair of the Technical Conference Committee, and his 26 committee: Pantelis Alexopoulos of Maxtor, Bill Carlson of Tessera, Tom Coughlin of Windage Testing of HGAs Coughlin & Associates, Paul Frank of INSIC, Oz Fundingsland of OSF International, at the Keith Goodson of Seagate, Jim Porter of Disk/Trend, Barry Rossum of Consulting Component Level Resources International, and Mike Russak of Komag. Bill Watkins of Seagate, Mike Cannon of Maxtor, Matt Massengill of Western Digital, Mike Cadigan of IBM, Ichiro Komura of Fujitsu, Wayne Fortun of Hutchinson Technology, and Ed Braun of Veeco for their participation in the CEO Summit. A special thank you to Matt Massengill of Western Digital for his wise and witty presentation as the Keynote Dinner speaker. With a successful DISKCON USA 2002 behind us, it’s time to begin planning for next year’s event. Over 80% of all booths have already been sold. Reserve your space now by calling Paul Moschella or Cheryl Brady at 781-769-8950. 94% of you say you plan to attend DISKCON USA 2003, so we look forward to seeing you then. As you know, IDEMA has undergone, and continues to undergo, some major changes in structure, management, and focus. We’ll provide more updates as additional information is available on the consortium, new standards, and events for 2003. Fall 2002 • INSIGHT 3 INSIGHT Editor IDEMA—U.S. Board of Directors—U.S. Board of Directors—Japan Sally Bryant 3255 Scott Boulevard Randy Bonner, Acropolis Tsuneo Suganuma—Chair [email protected] Suite 2-102, Santa Clara, CA Engineering Hitachi, Ltd. 408.330.8106 95054-3013 USA Phone: 408.330.8100 Frank Briezo, KLA-Tencor Akira Kakehi—Co-Chair Fujitsu, Ltd. Creative Director Fax: 408.492.1425 Ed Grochowski, IBM Jim Murphy, Read-Rite Shun Kaneko—Director Emeritus Christine Carrig Iomega Japan Corporation Sally Bryant, Ed.D. Rick Penn, Hutchinson Technology Executive Director Hideki Harada—Auditor 408.330.8106 Mike Russak, Komag HTA Articles Mark Geenen Rich Rutledge, Western Digital Teizo Tarao—Executive Director Article contributions are President Gerard “Tex” Schenkkan, Maxtor IDEMA Japan welcome and are subject to editing 408.330.8101 Shoji Fuchigami by IDEMA. Dave Wickersham, Seagate Trudy Gressley Technology Sony Corporation Finance/Office Manager Yuichi Hyakusoku Advertising 408.330.8105 Mediken, Inc. Ad space is available for the Winter Management Committee— Lisa Hood Yuji Kubota 2003 Issue. Editorial calendar and Administrative Coordinator Asia-Pacific Toshiba Corporation advertising rates are available 408.330.8100 Jim Chirico—Chair online at www.idema.org. Noboru Kubokawa Beth McCullough Seagate Technology Institute of Information Tradeshow Coordinator B.L. Teh—Vice Chair Technology, Ltd. Subscriptions (Annual Rates) 408.492.1436 MMI Mikio Matsuzaki IDEMA Members: Free Kristen Montan S.C. Lee—Singapore TDK Corporation Nonmembers: Program Manager, Standards Advisory Chair United States: $80 408.330.8109 Shunichi Murakami Maxtor Peripherals (S) Pte. Ltd. Anelva Corporation Canada & Mexico: $100 Tom McDorman—Malaysia Rest of World: $140 Tadashi Shinohara Communications Committee Advisory Chair Hitachi Metals, Ltd. For a subscription, register online Richard Penn—Chair Western Digital at www.idema.org. Isao Suzuki Hutchinson Technology, Inc. Brent Bargmann—Thailand Hoya Corporation Sally Bryant, Ed.D. Advisory Committee Chair INSIGHT is an association/technical Akira Terada IDEMA Seagate Technology journal published quarterly by IDEMA— Alps Electric Co., Ltd. Peter Maguire—Philippines the trade association for the data storage Jay Kimmal Tetsuo Tsuru Komag, Inc. Advisory Chair industry. The goal of INSIGHT is to Lighthouse Worldwide Hitachi Electronics Engineering inform IDEMA members and industry Keith Goodson Solutions Pte. Ltd. Co., Ltd. professionals worldwide about emerging Seagate Toshihisa Ueno technologies, industry news, as well as John Lee—Greater China Advisory Chair Kobe Steel, Ltd. upcoming IDEMA and industry trade Kaifa Magnetics events. INSIGHT is an international Haruo Urai publication read by more than 15,000 IDEMA—Asia-Pacific S.H. Goh—Education Committe NEC Corporation C/O Seagate Technology engineers, scientists, and technical Chair Hideaki Yamazaki 7000 Ang Mo Kio Ave 5 managers involved in the selection and Achieva Spider Systems of Japan, Inc. Singapore 569877 purchase of materials, equipment, Republic of Singapore Gary Davis—Membership Chair Takashi Yamazaki supplies, and products used in the Phone: 65.278.9522 Davis Consultants Asia Sdn. Bhd. IBM Japan, Ltd. development and manufacture of data Fax: 65.278.8762 William Tan—Standards Chair storage devices. Megatech Electronics Pte. Ltd. Wendy Ang Chan Leng Wai—Finance Chair Training Executive Peoplenet Sok-Yin Hong Chang Faa Shoon Administrative Executive Seagate K.Y. Phua Adam Giandomenico © Copyright 2002 IDEMA. All rights Managing Director Lighthouse reserved. No part of this publication may 65.226.3412 be reproduced without the written K.Y. Phua permission of IDEMA. IDEMA and IDEMA—Japan IDEMA Asia-Pacific DISKCON are registered trademarks of Wataru Building, 6th Floor T.H. Soh the International Disk Drive Equipment 2-11-9, Nishi Shinbashi Read-Rite Corporation Minato-ku, Tokyo 105-0003 and Materials Association. Other product Michael Weiss Japan names or brands used in this publication Veeco Instruments, Inc. are for identification purposes only and Phone: 81.3.3539.7071 may be trademarks of their respective Fax: 81.3.3539.7072 Hank Pselos companies. K.R. Precision Naoko Miura Sukh Sandhu Editor/Seminars IBM Teizo Tarao Executive Director 81.3.3539.7071 Akiko Yamamoto Finance/Standards 4 INSIGHT • Fall 2002 Fall 2002 • INSIGHT 5 Alchemy and Rigorous Science: The Evolution of Hard Disk Drives John Monroe, Gartner Dataquest A History of Fantastic Achievement The Upward Slope of Capacity and the Downward Slope of Cost: The Essential Curves of HDD Technological marvels, however stunning, have become Technology almost commonplace in the hard disk drive (HDD) industry. We expect the bright folks employed by drive makers to produce wonders, and, with amazing regular- Eras of Giant Strides ity, they do. Like the discoveries of twentieth century Quick transitions from thin-film inductive (TFI) theoretical physics, these startling practical innovations at recording heads (in the late 1980s) to magnetoresistive times seem to partake as much of alchemy as of rigorous (MR) recording heads (in the early 1990s) to giant mag- science. netoresistive (GMR) recording heads (in the late 1990s), in conjunction with parallel advances in media and During the 1990s, the HDD industry, both on the read/write channel technologies, have enabled staggering drawing boards and in the factory, became frighteningly recent progress in HDD capacities per spindle. capable, designing and producing record volumes of low- cost, high-capacity, high-performance products that IBM’s 16GP and 14GXP Deskstar HDD families, which dominated competing storage technologies and helped to were announced on November 10,