Thanks for the memories...
09/01/2004
Integrated circuit technology is sometimes considered the greatest triumph of industrial technology, spawning an electronics revolution. TI's Jack Kilby earned the Nobel Prize for combining a few devices on the same silicon chip, and Intel co-founder Gordon Moore has attained legendary status with his law predicting the doubling of circuit density every 18 months to two years.
But wait a minute. There is actually another technology that has moved at an even more frantic pace: read heads for data storage devices. Until recently, the density of bits on data storage media was doubling every year. While the density has now slowed to about 30%/year, new technology may again accelerate the pace. The drop in price/function due to shrinking IC features has fueled revolutionary growth in markets for semiconductor-based products, but many of the most popular applications would not be possible without the even more rapid gain in storage capacity for both solid-state and disk drive memories.
Many unheralded researchers, toiling quietly and ingeniously in labs, have created incredible advances in storage technology. Some of the technologies they spawned may soon move from disk drives into new types of solid-state memories, especially suited for what is being called "untethered electronics." A form of spintronics — an exotic concept for building logic gates based on electron spin rather than voltage, current, or charge — has been used in spin-valve read heads since the 1990s, for example.
This special supplement to Solid State Technology is a tribute to those whose tireless work has brought us such amazing progress. It covers:
- How a new type of atom probe microscope examines interfaces of extremely thin films in head structures.
- Progress toward the next step: the tunneling giant magnetoresistive (TGMR) read head.
- Special requirements for chemical mechanical polishing of thin-film head wafers.
- A look at new head structures, including those for vertical recording, along with processing steps needed to make them.
- How new materials for embedded memories will enable a new generation of untethered electronics.
 |
To all of you doing such great work in this field, we offer a heartfelt thanks for all the great memories. Keep them coming!
Robert Haavind
Editorial Director