Fujifilm together with IBM Answers to Sony
Native 154TB into LTO cartridge

Citing its use of proprietary NANOCUBIC and Barium Ferrite (BaFe) particle technologies, FUJIFILM Corporation, announced that in conjunction with IBM Corp., a record in areal data density of 85.9 billion bits per square inch on cost-efficient linear magnetic particulate tape has been achieved.

This breakthrough in data density equates to a standard LTO cartridge capable of storing up to 154TB of uncompressed data, which is 62 times greater than today's current LTO-6 cartridge capacity.

This record was reached using an advanced prototype tape incorporating NANOCUBIC technology developed by Fujifilm, with advanced tape-drive technologies developed by IBM.

Fujifilm's research addresses previous shortcomings associated with decreasing the magnetic particle size and thermal stability degradation. The enhanced NANOCUBIC technology decreases the BaFe magnetic particle volume, which is essential for high density data recording, while maintaining its thermal stability to ensure long term archivability of recorded data.

Since the surface roughness of tape is directly related to both signal-to-noise ratio and high quality output, NANOCUBIC technology incorporates NANO coating and dispersion techniques to control surface smoothness. In addition, NANO perpendicular orientation precisely aligns the BaFe particles to produce high quality read signal over a wide frequency.

Fujifilm Proprietary Media Technology

• Enhanced NANO particle:  The new BaFe synthesis method decreases the particle volume while maintaining its thermal stability by suppressing the distribution of the particle size and the magnetic properties. The technology creates a uniform NANO particle with consistent magnetic properties.
• Enhanced NANO coating and dispersion: The new dispersion process and dispersion material make it possible to separate each BaFe particle and avoid the agglomeration of fine BaFe particles. The uniformly dispersed BaFe particles form a thinner magnetic layer with an extremely smooth surface. These technologies lead to improved signal-to-noise ratios and high frequency responses, and eliminate the need for expensive metal sputtering or evaporation coating methods.
• NANO perpendicular orientation: This new technology allows the aFe particle orientation to be precisely controlled by taking advantage of the magnetocrystalline anisotropy of BaFe to deliver a high quality read signal over a wide frequency.

Collaboration with IBM
This is the third time in less than 10 years that Fujifilm, working with IBM scientists, have achieved such an accomplishment.

The team at IBM has focused on improving head technology to produce stronger magnetic fields needed for improved tape capacity, speed and reliability, while leveraging Fujifilm's advanced NANOCUBIC technology, looking forward, these large capacity tapes will prove to be the most reliable and affordable storage alternative, satisfying the requirements for big data and cloud storage.

To help reach this milestone, IBM researchers developed new technologies, including:

• enhanced write field head that enables the use of much finer BaFe particles
• advanced servo control that allows head positioning with nano-scale fidelity and enables a 27 fold increase in track density compared to the LTO-6 format
• innovative signal-processing algorithms for the data channel that enable reliable operation with an ultra-narrow 90nm wide GMR reader