When the track density of two-dimensional magnetic recording (TDMR) systems is increased, intertrack interference (ITI) inevitably grows, resulting in the extreme degradation of an overall system performance. In this work, we present coding, writing, and reading techniques which allow TDMR systems with multi-readers to overcome severe ITI. A rate-5/6 two-dimensional (2D) modulation code is adopted to protect middle-track data from ITI based on cross-track data dependence. Since the rate-5/6 2D modulation code greatly improves the reliability of the middle-track, there is a bit-error rate gap between middle-track and sidetracks. Therefore, we propose the different track width writing technique to optimize the reliability of all three data tracks. In addition, we also evaluate the TDMR system performance using an user areal density capability (UADC) as a main key parameter. Here, an areal density capability (ADC) can be measured by finding the bit-error rate of the system with sweeping track and linear densities. The UADC is then obtained by removing redundancy from the ADC. Simulation results show that a system with our proposed techniques gains the UADC of about 4.66% over the conventional TDMR systems.

In this paper, we demonstrate how to subtract the intertrack interference (ITI) before the decoding process in multi-track multi-head bit-patterned media recording (BPMR) system, which can obtain a better bit error rate (BER) performance. We focus on the three-track/three-head BPMR channel and propose the ITI subtraction technique that performs together with a rate-5/6 two dimensional (2D) modulation code. Since the coded system can provide the estimated recorded bit sequence with a high reliability rate for the center track. However, the upper and lower data sequences still be interfered with their sidetracks, which results to have a low reliability rate. Therefore, we propose to feedback the data from the center and upper tracks for subtracting the ITI effect of the lower track. Meanwhile, the feedback data from the center and lower tracks will be also used to subtract the ITI effect of the upper track. The use of our proposed technique can effectively reduce the severity of ITI effect which caused from the two sidetracks. The computer simulation results in the presence of position and size fluctuations show that the proposed system yields better BER performance than a conventional coded system, especially when an areal density (AD) is ultra high.

The two-dimensional (2D) interference is one of the major impairments in bit-patterned media recording (BPMR) systems due to small bit and track pitches, especially at high recording densities. To alleviate this problem, we introduced a rate-4/5 constructive inter-track interference (CITI) coding scheme to prevent the destructive data patterns to be written onto a magnetic medium for an uncoded BPMR system, i.e., without error-correction codes. Because the CITI code produces only the hard decision, it cannot be employed in a coded BPMR system that uses a low-density parity-check (LDPC) code. To utilize it in an iterative decoding scheme, we propose a soft CITI coding scheme based on the log-likelihood ratio algebra implementation in Boolean logic mappings in order that the soft CITI coding scheme together with a modified 2D soft-output Viterbi algorithm (SOVA) detector and a LDPC decoder will jointly perform iterative decoding. Simulation results show that the proposed scheme provides a significant performance improvement, in particular when an areal density (AD) is high and/or the position jitter is large. Specifically, at a bit-error rate of 10-4 and no position jitter, the proposed system can provide approximately 1.8 and 3.5 dB gain over the conventional coded system without using the CITI code at the ADs of 2.5 and 3.0 Tera-bit per square inch (Tb/in2), respectively.

In bit-patterned media recording (BPMR), the readback signal is severely corrupted by the inter-symbol interference (ISI) and inter-track interference (ITI), especially at high recording densities, due to small bit and track pitches. One way to alleviate the ITI effect is to encode an input data sequence before recording, so as to avoid some data patterns that easily cause an error at the data detection process. This paper proposes an ITI-mitigating 5/6 modulation code for a multi-track multi-head BPMR system to eliminate the data patterns that lead to severe ITI. Specifically, each of the 5 user bits is converted into a 6-bit codeword in the form of a 3-by-2 data array, based on a look-up table. Experimental results indicate that the system with the proposed coding scheme outperforms that without coding, especially when an areal density is high and/or the position jitter is large.

This paper is concerned with the evaluation of the block error probability Pic of a block modulation code for closest coset decoding over an AWGN channel. In most cases, the conventional union bound on Pic for closest coset decoding is loose not only at low signal-to-noise ratios but at relatively high signal-to-noise ratios. In this paper, we introduce a new upper bound on the probability of union of events by using the graph theory and we derive an improved upper bound on Pic for some block modulation codes using closest coset decoding over an AWGN channel. We show that the new bound is better than the conventional union bound especially at relatively high signal-to-noise ratios.