Magnetic evaluation of advanced metal-evaporated tape in an advanced linear tape drive

Demand for increased data storage has resulted in the development of various types of magnetic tapes. To achieve higher recording density, tape manufacturers are developing thin-film tapes, such as advanced metal-evaporated (AME) tape, for use in linear tape drives. In recent studies, these new AME tapes have demonstrated sustainable mechanical durability at low tensions suitable for use in linear tape drives. An evaluation of the magnetic performance of these AME tapes including the impact of tape cupping and initial edge quality was the goal of this study. Head output, dropouts, head–tape interface friction, and lateral tape motion (LTM) were monitored throughout testing. As track widths continue to narrow, LTM has become one of the critical limitations of magnetic performance. To more accurately measure LTM during drive development, a new method involving the output voltage of a head-read element that has been adjusted to be halfway off the recorded track on tape was implemented (LTM_M). It is shown that positively cupped AME tapes will result in similar head output and fewer dropouts than the current MP tapes. The negatively cupped AME sample produced the lowest head output data and the highest amount of dropouts of all the tapes evaluated in this investigation. All the tapes evaluated demonstrated similar values of LTM when monitored at the center of the tape. When LTM was monitored at the lower edge of the tape, the positively cupped AME tape with the worst relative edge contour length resulted in the highest LTM_M. As found in previous studies, AME tapes produced slightly lower values of coefficient of friction than the MP tapes. From this investigation, positively cupped AME tapes with good initial relative edge contour length are recommended for use in linear tape drives, similar to those used in this study.