R&D: MLP-based ITI Suppression Method for Multi-Head Multi-Track Bit-Patterned Magnetic Recording

IEEE Transactions on Magnetics has published an article written by Santi Koonkarnkhai, Piya Kovintavewat, Department of Electrical Engineering, Faculty of Science and Technology, Nakhon Pathom Rajabhat University, Nakhon Pathom, Thailand, and Chanon Warisarn, College of Advanced Manufacturing Innovation, King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology Ladkrabang, Bangkok, Thailand.

Abstract: “Inter-track interference (ITI) is a critical challenge in bit-patterned magnetic recording (BPMR) systems, particularly at high areal densities (ADs) where reduced bit period and track pitch lead to severe interference. This paper introduces a novel multi-layer perceptron (MLP)-based ITI suppression method for three-head three-track (3H3T) BPMR system. Our approach employs an MLP to estimate the main track data and employs iterative decoding to generate soft information, which will then be used to reconstruct and remove ITI for the adjacent tracks. At an AD of 3 Tb/in² and a bit-error rate of 10⁻⁵, simulation results show that the proposed system achieves performance gains of 1 dB and 6.5 dB compared to the previously proposed 3H3T system and the conventional system with one-head one-track detection, respectively. Additionally, our system demonstrates robust performance under challenging conditions, maintaining effectiveness with track mis-registration up to 10% and media noise up to 5%. These results indicate that the proposed method can be considered as one of the promising solutions for ultra high-density BPMR systems.“