Characterization of transition shifts in perpendicular magnetic recording using 3D FEM

Transition shift can create serious timing problems for high density recording environments. However, it is possible to use techniques such as write precompensation to offset the timing error introduced if the magnitude and the behaviour of the transition shift are properly understood. This paper introduces a 3D finite element method (FEM) to analyse the transition shift in perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR) quantitatively, allowing the combinational effects of the transition shifts from non-linear transition shift (NLTS), HTS, and neighbourhood-induced transition shift (NITS) to be examined. The consideration of all contributing factors to the final written transition position is important in determining the precompensation scheme of magnetic data recording, and 3D FEM can facilitate such quantitative analysis.