This episode features an interview with Alan Johnston, Vice President of Recording Head Technology at Seagate. In this episode, Alan provides an in-depth overview of the development and intricacies of Seagate’s HAMR (Heat-Assisted Magnetic Recording) technology.
This episode features an interview with Alan Johnston, Vice President of Recording Head Technology at Seagate. With over 25 years of industry experience, Alan has been at the forefront of designing and developing Seagate’s revolutionary Mozaic 3+ platform for the past 12 years.
Alan provides an in-depth overview of the development and intricacies of Seagate’s HAMR (Heat-Assisted Magnetic Recording) technology that lives within the Mozaic 3+ platform. He discusses the transition from PMR (Perpendicular Magnetic Recording) to HAMR, emphasizing its superior capacity, efficiency, and potential for future expansion. Highlighting Seagate's innovation and collaboration across global teams, Alan underscores the technological and environmental benefits of HAMR in the ever-evolving digital era.
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Guest Quote
“The whole industry has to move towards HAMR [technology] over the next five years. And again, HAMR has got legs at least as far as I can see over the next ten years, more than enough for us to go work to try keep pushing and boosting aerial density for the next decade.”
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Time Stamps
*(03:07) Components inside the Mozaic 3+
*(07:57) PMR vs. HAMR technology
*(13:10) Understand the new technologies in the Mozaic 3+
*(14:50) Importance of Aerial Density
*(17:23) Impact of Mozaic 3+
*(20:01) Seagate's Commitment to Innovation and Collaboration
*(23:38) Sustainability and Circularity
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Sponsor copy
Writing the Future is brought to you by Seagate. Seagate is at the forefront of storing, protecting, and activating the world's data. With explosive growth in cloud, AI, and machine learning, Seagate delivers breakthrough technology and mass-capacity storage solutions. Inspired by their values, they push beyond what's possible so you can securely store your data and easily unlock its value. Visit Seagate.com to learn more.
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Links
Learn more about the Mozaic 3+ Platform
[00:00:00] Voiceover: Welcome to Writing the Future, your ultimate guide to decoding the future of data storage. Join us as we delve into the minds of leading engineers, researchers, product managers, and technologists from around the globe. Together, we'll navigate through the intricacies of tomorrow's data storage landscape.
[00:00:35] Shedding light on the latest innovations and breakthroughs. At the forefront of this revolution is Seagate technology. Empowering the boundless potential of data. Through captivating conversations, we'll journey through the evolution of data storage, uncovering the Stories of those who pioneered its transformation.
[00:00:57] Come along as we unveil the blueprints for the future. Because in this podcast, we're not just predicting the future, we're writing it.
[00:01:16] At Seagate, we're writing the future. In today's episode, we explore Mozaic 3+ Seagate's breakthrough hard drive platform, delivering unprecedented aerial densities of three terabytes per disc and beyond. We hear from Alan Johnston, Vice President of Recording Head Technology at Seagate, on what makes Mozaic 3+ such a remarkable breakthrough for the storage industry.
[00:01:45] Alan Johnston: My name is Alan Johnston. I'm the Vice President of Recording Head Technology. My team design, develop and test the nanoplasmonic writer. My background, I have a PhD in physics and my specialism was magnetic materials and high resolution TEM, transition electron microscopy. I joined Seagate in the Ireland facility in springtime and it was there for, 10, 15 years.
[00:02:13] Um, I moved to Minneapolis about 12 years ago and that's really where my journey with Mozaic started. Um, my team have been working very heavily on it for the last 10 years, you know, from the very early demonstrations right through to, you know, where we are now, productization and preparing to ramp to volume.
[00:02:34] Voiceover: Before we dive into what's inside the drive, let's take a moment to talk about Mozaic 3+ This isn't your run of the mill hard drive. It's equipped with Seagate's groundbreaking HAMR technology, which stands for heat assisted magnetic recording, pushing storage boundaries like never before. This isn't just storage, it's like having a digital powerhouse at your fingertips.
[00:03:01] As we delve into the inner workings of the drive, Allen provides an insightful breakdown of its components.
[00:03:08] Alan Johnston: If you look inside a drive, you know, you'll have the media, the large discs, and then on the end of suspension arms are the heads. You know, in a cloud drive today, we have 20 heads. In the head, we have, you know, two or three main areas.
[00:03:23] We have to write. The media, and also read back the signal that we have on the media. In order to write the media, you know, we start with having a laser, which we energize, and then we, we define a path, uh, an optical path to the nanoplasmonic writer. And at the end of the arm is the recording head. So the recording head performs two functions.
[00:03:45] Number one is to write the media. And number two is to read back the signal. So in order to write, we have laser, which provides energy into the nanoplasmonic writer. This in turn, you know, energizes the media to record the transition. So that's really the writing process. And then we write onto the superlattice platinum alloy media.
[00:04:09] In order to read back, we have very high sensitivity, magnetoresistive. sensor, which reads back all the information written on the disk.
[00:04:20] Voiceover: This kind of thing doesn't happen overnight. The development of Mozaic 3+ Plus Seagate's unique implementation of HAMR technology began years ago, decades in fact.
[00:04:32] Thousands of Seagaters contributed, all motivated by one goal. Create a stable, reliable HAMR platform with unprecedented aerial density.
[00:04:44] Alan Johnston: So if you have a HAMRhead, it's made up of many different pieces. First part is really the optics, you know, where we have kind of integrated optical systems, which takes the light from the laser.
[00:04:58] You know, the recording process starts at the laser, where light is shone through an optical path in the head to the nanoplasmonic writer. The recording process starts with the laser. As that's energized, you know, optical power moves through the transducer up to the right, or area. Once it gets close to the right area, it actually does an energy conversion from optical power to plasmonic power.
[00:05:26] And, you know, these plasmons are ultimately what generate the electric power. Electrical field, which records the bit in HAMR, in the HAMR media. You know, in order to do that, you have, we have what's called a near field transducer, which focuses the optical energy. And we also have a magnetic writer, which changes the bits.
[00:05:47] So in order to write, What happens is the laser comes, switches on, focuses towards the media and heats the media up to what we call the Curie temperature. The writer, at this point, depending on its orientation, records the bit either a 1 or a 0. To give an idea of some of the geometries involved in materials, you transducer itself is micron level, but the area which we focus the beam down would be on the order of 30 to 50 nanometers So, if you look at the Near Field Transducer, you know, we use very advanced lithography to create a structure which is in the order of 30 40 nanometers wide.
[00:06:30] So, that's in the order of about a few hundred atoms in width. So, really, we are, you know, atomic engineers as we manage this. Uh, as we look at the different interfaces as different materials, uh, you know, become in proximity with each other. Um, that brings That can play a very important role in the system.
[00:06:48] See the thing is, is nanometer, people don't really know what a nanometer is, because it's so small. You know, like an atom is, uh, you think of a micron that people are typically associated with, that's like, you know, a hundred thousand of these. You know, if you look at hairwood, it's like three, 400, 000. So it's, it's tiny, you know, it's probably a hundredth the width of a.
[00:07:20] So, you know, in order to do this, we need, you know, very advanced lithography, material deposition systems and etch systems in order to both create these geometries, but in a repeatable manufacturable way, you know, such that, you know, as we go to volume, we have, you know, good yields and good overall costs within Seagate.
[00:07:40] Voiceover: HAMR may resemble PMR technology at first glance, but it stands apart in its innovation and capabilities. Alan explains the difference, highlighting how the commercial availability of Mozaic 3+ Plus technology is revolutionizing the landscape of storage technology.
[00:07:58] Alan Johnston: Prior technology was PMR, writer, and in a way what we do is we have it.
[00:08:03] We slice it in half and we put in all these optics and that's basically how we energize the HAMR writer. You know, so I would say these similarities to the prior technology, but HAMR takes that, you know, multiple steps beyond where PMR could ever get to. You know, both in terms of geometries, materials, and physics associated with it.
[00:08:28] You know, the HAMR Mozaic writer is, is just so much more complex and, you know, it's just so deep with physics. You know, you really have to have a very good, deep understanding of physics if you want to, you know, break this problem apart. So if you look between our perpendicular technology and HAMR technology, within the box, it may look the same, but at a nanotech level.
[00:08:52] It's very different. So the media is upgraded from a general granular media to a new super lattice iron platinum alloy. The writer, from a PMR perspective, we add new optical components, both to transport the light to the transducer and then also to perform the HAMR function. And then electronics wise, you know, in order to control this new system, there's some new advanced features required in order to You know, manage the performance and reliability of the head at all times.
[00:09:24] Yeah, and that's why we use the adaptive real time system on a chip, uh, in order to best manage the performance and reliability of the HAMRhead. This chip is the kind of brains of the operation. It manages, you know, the performance, the reliability, and, you know, many other functions, uh, you know, within the hard drive.
[00:09:43] It's a completely custom chip, developed in house by Seagate. So, PMR technology, you know, we've demonstrated very clearly that it's good up into the 20TB, can arrange with around 2 2. 4TB per platter. You know, that's getting close to its theoretical limit and, you know, really to get to the 3 you neHAMRmer technology.
[00:10:08] If you look at Mozaik 3 the 3 stands for 3TB per disk. You know, this is a capacity that is not achievable with PMR technology, and, you know, we have You know, clearly been able to demonstrate it with HAMR technology. So we get to 3TB per disk in the 3 but again, you know, expect to see 4 5 in the near future.
[00:10:31] And the one thing with HAMR technology is, is, you know, we believe it's extendable, you know, for drives, whether it be 30, 40, 50TB and beyond. You know, so there's no doubt that HAMR is, uh, You know, we'll have improved total cost of ownership, more terabytes per dollar, but also, you know, these more terabytes per power per unit watt, which may, you know, which ultimately makes a cheaper storage experience.
[00:10:59] It's a more efficient design and it also seamlessly fits into existing architecture. So one good thing between PMR and HAMR as a customer, it really is plug and play. You know, you can take out the PMR, plug in the HAMR and really your hardware is all, you know, it's a seamless experience really. Again, if you're looking to, you know, be at the, at the forefront of technology and capability, then really HAMR technology is what you want to bring with other parts of your system.
[00:11:32] You know, clearly the most advanced, highest capacity, lowest cost of ownership, storage technology that's available today. And, you know, I'm sure that will, fit in well with any customer system. So as well as manage the read write head operation, it also manages the security and data encryption, you know, which are essential security features of the drive.
[00:11:56] We've been working on it for the last 10 years. And the one thing you find with engineers is they love solving problems. And HAMR has got more problems than your typical technology transition. So it really, you know, is something the engineers love to kind of, you know, get to grips with. And, you know, I know everybody, including myself, are very proud of where we've got to, and, you know, really look forward to seeing this in the market.
[00:12:19] So if you look at our journey on HAMR, it's been, you know, we've had so many different Challenges along the way, you know, every angle, uh, almost every aspect of physics we've had to battle with in order to try and get this technology to market. I'm very excited about, you know, the Mozaic 3+. 0. Um, it's really a Seagate's implementation of HAMR and, you know, really looking forward to the ecosystem that is enabled by this technology.
[00:12:46] And, you know, that with other. You know, associated technologies should enable the new Mozaic 3+ Plus platform.
[00:12:55] Voiceover: There is a collection of nanoscale, groundbreaking technologies in the Mozaic 3+ Plus platform. Alan delves into three of the most prominent innovations within this platform, each reshaping our perspective of storage technology.
[00:13:11] Alan Johnston: So, these three new technologies in the Mozaic 3+ Plus platform. The first is the Nano Plasmonic Writer. You know, this is what we use to, you know, energize the media and record the information. Number two is a Super Lattice Platinum Alloy Media. And, and the special part on this is it allows us to store information in very small packets, you know, very small grains, which really is enabled by this material and, you know, all the material science enabled.
[00:13:40] And really it's how, you know, this media works in conjunction with the writer, which allows for us to break, you know, what would be. What is known as superparamagnetic limits and PMR and takes us to aerial densities way in excess of what's available in perpendicular recording. And then number three is the adaptive real time system on a chip.
[00:14:02] What this does as well as mean, you know, manage the read write head operation also brings the security features and adds the, you know, we worked on perpendicular recording for many years and you could Feel both fundamentally and experimentally where we're starting to hit, you know, limits on the aerial density capability.
[00:14:23] And that's why HAMR always has had the promise of, you know, the higher aerial density. But, you know, the complexity and reliability challenges were things that we had to overcome in order to bring that to market.
[00:14:36] Voiceover: These three groundbreaking technologies allow Mozaic 3+ Plus to drive higher aerial densities than any other data storage technology, solidifying its status as an exceptional product in the storage industry.
[00:14:50] Alan Johnston: Aerial density is the ability to store more information in a smaller volume. So, if I have a disk which would be, say, three and a half inches wide, aerial density is the ability to pack more and more information on one of those disks. You know, one benefit of the Mozaic 3+ is in a higher capacity. It means that we can attain full capacity drive with less components, so less disks, less heads.
[00:15:18] That, that ensures cost, power. And reliability of the device should be improved with those reduced component counts and improved efficiency in the drive. Aerial density is king always. Aerial density has been the primary metric for the industry for the last five years, so, you know, last 50 years. So really, aerial density has been, and will continue to be, the The primary guiding metric for the industry.
[00:15:50] You know, you can also say aerial density over dollars because, you know, the total cost of ownership has improved, you know, tenfold over the years. So, you know, continuing to look at, you know, cost optimized capacity really is what, what we're looking at. You know, what we specialize in. So I think for us as the same Mozaic three plus really is the, you know, the amalgamation of fantastic work across all areas of Seagate for the last 10, 15 years.
[00:16:19] So it's just really exciting to see that, you know, come together as a product, something that's, you know, available on the market to, you know, really it's the fruit of all this work over a decade from hundreds of people all kinda culminates in the Mozaic Three plus product.
[00:16:38] Voiceover: You may be wondering, 3 plus of what?
[00:16:41] Alan explains what that number means and what numbers might follow.
[00:16:46] Alan Johnston: So the difference between Mozaic 3+ plus and 4 plus really comes down to how we manage the atoms. You know, ultimately, we're like atomic engineers. The difference between those is, is effectively four atoms. You know, so really we're atomic engineers looking at all the different layers and the materials and trying to get enhancements for, you know, some of the core technology needs in order to push capacity from three up to four terabytes per disk.
[00:17:16] Voiceover: Now for the so what. What is the real impact that Mozaic 3+ Plus will have in the world?
[00:17:23] Alan Johnston: As far as what Mozaic 3+ Plus enables in the world, so there's no doubt the world is going more digital every day. You know, everything now is being stored digitally, all records, you know. You know, photos, movies, video, everything is moving towards a kind of digital platform.
[00:17:43] And really that's where Mozaic, you know, provides benefit of having this, you know, large capacity, you know, good total cost of ownership, you know, allows for more of that digital content to be stored and held. You know, examples of, you know, digital content coming, you know, there's no doubt the words go through our AI and machine learning explosion at the moment.
[00:18:06] You know, both very exciting technologies, both of which we use, you know, within Seagate as well as in our personal lives. So again, it's digital in the workplace and at home.
[00:18:18] Voiceover: Seagate's unique implementation of HAMR technology in the Mozaic 3+ Plus platform is significantly reshaping the data storage landscape.
[00:18:28] Alan provides insights into the profound impact of these advancements, outlining their implications for the future trajectory of the industry.
[00:18:38] Alan Johnston: So, as Seagate has launched HAMR Technology and the Mozaic platform, it really is an industry milestone, again, showing the path forward. As I say, we've been working on PMR, the whole industry, for the last 15 years, and, you know, this is the first embodiment of HAMR Technology in the whole industry.
[00:18:59] And, you know, and from our understanding, you know, of the technology, you know, I think, you know, it feels like we're at least three, five years ahead of, of the competition at this point. Um, you know, again, it's a testament to our long term, you know, decision making and investment in this technology has put us in this prime position.
[00:19:18] You know, so for example, where we have the aerial density capability of HAMR, but if you don't have that, then you're forced to do things like add disks. It's both complexity and cost addition in order to try and get close to match. But really, there's a point at which PMR cannot match HAMR's capacity.
[00:19:37] You know, it just doesn't have the intrinsic aerial density capability to meet it. You have to, the whole industry has to move towards HAMR over the next five years and again, HAMR has got legs at least as far as I can see over the next 10 years. You know, these, these more than enough for us to go work to try keep pushing and boosting aerial density, you know, for the next decade.
[00:20:00] Again, our group is innovation by definition, you know, we innovate all day, every day, you know, solving problems and innovating is what we do. It really is, like, it's part of, again, when everybody comes in, you know, the way that we set up our business processes, the way You know, assign our people, it's all about managing innovation, you know, and really that's the thing that we specialized in, I'd say, the last few years is, is how you set up the team to be successful, you know, so we structure a lot of the activities so that the engineers can work seamlessly on top of it.
[00:20:38] And again, we, we remove the block, the blocks, I would say any, any roadblocks in front of the engineers, we try to remove and maximize the potential of each engineer. And if we do that, then ultimately we are successful because we've unlocked the capability of all our people.
[00:20:56] Voiceover: In addition to innovation, one of the key values that Seagate carries forward is integrity.
[00:21:04] But what does that mean for Alan and his team?
[00:21:07] Alan Johnston: I think for us, integrity, I, I, I would say is, you know, we do what we say we'll do, you know, so when we put out a plan, you know, you know, we really do our best to kind of follow through on it, hold the dates, hold the expectation of the deliverable, you know, because really that's the integrity of your commitment and, you know, your ability to, it really is do what you say you would do.
[00:21:31] You know, you don't put plans out that you don't think you can meet, you know, so I think it's really our words and our actions, kind of define our integrity, you know, say what we do, do what we say.
[00:21:44] Voiceover: It takes a truly global team to accomplish technology breakthroughs like this. Alan explains.
[00:21:51] Alan Johnston: My team is actually located across three different continents, in the U.
[00:21:56] S., in Ireland, and in Thailand. So really, inclusion is a big part of how we keep all the teams tied together across, you know, three very different time zones. And really we work, you know, the systems and methods we put in place allow us to work seamlessly across those three different continents. Now the one thing that's really good though is by having the different kind of educational backgrounds, whether it be U.
[00:22:26] S., Asia, Europe, you know, really Many people come with slightly different viewpoints and, you know, we really try to get the most out of those different ways to attack problems. Um, these no doubt different cultures are complementary to each other and definitely in a development environment, can be actually more effective as we go attack these different problems.
[00:22:47] So really, having a very diverse, My responsibility is to ensure that our workforce is is essential and you know in my opinion it's essential to be a a good development team you know to have those different viewpoints and be able to bring them all together. There's no doubt over the last decade you know the number of teams who've been involved with the project.
[00:23:08] Development and launch of, of Mozaic 3+ has just been immense, uh, whether it be the engineering teams, the manufacturing teams, you know, the facilities teams, everybody has really played a part in getting to where we are today. So, you know, thanks to everybody. Thank you.
[00:23:24] Voiceover: Seagate is also thinking about what happens to the drive at the end of its life.
[00:23:29] Introducing Seagate's Circularity Program and Sustainability Efforts. As Alan puts it,
[00:23:36] Alan Johnston: In terms of circularity, you know, in a drive, there's so many different components and materials. I think it's important, you know, that we do our part for the planet and recycle and reuse these components as much as possible.
[00:23:49] So really, if you want to go full circularity, you have to manage the data and make sure that it's disposed of effectively. You know, because that, you know, if you look today, people like Google, they just snap them. Maintain the data integrity of the customer, but also don't, you know, don't dispose of, you know, perfectly good materials, which we can recycle.
[00:24:10] So clearly there's a need for a partnership with, you know, some of the, uh, you know, some of our suppliers. Again, some that we may take back and be able to recycle, but others are just so worried about the data integrity. We're going to have to find solutions of, you know, maintaining that and also being able to recycle.
[00:24:29] And then in order to, you know, mitigate some of the data, you know, data integrity challenges, that's why having a system on a chip which includes both security and data encryption is very important because that starts to open those doors and enable the ability to fully recycle and reuse the components.
[00:24:48] You know, as part of the sustainability, you know, clearly Mozaic is part of that overall ecosystem that we're trying, or sustainability is part of the overall Mozaic ecosystem that we're creating, you know, as I say, it's very important for us to be able to, you know, recycle, reuse the components, both in terms of, you know, the planet and in terms of costs.
[00:25:10] A win for everybody, nearly.
[00:25:14] Voiceover: Thank you for joining us on this episode of Writing the Future. We'd like to thank Alan Johnston for his insightful exploration of the groundbreaking technologies in the Mozaic 3+ Platform. Don't miss out on future episodes. Be sure to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
[00:25:33] For more information about Seagate, visit Seagate. com. Until next time, let's continue writing the future together.