The Hard Disk Drive Industry:

Market Analysis And Processing Trends

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter 1 

The Disk Drive Market Infrastructure

1-1

Chapter 2 

The Disk Drive Industry

2-1

2.1

Hard Disk Drive Trends

2-1

2.2

Hard Disk Form Factors

2-10

2.3

Hard Disk Drive Market Analysis

2-14

2.3.1

Desktop PCs

2-23

2.3.2

Portable PCs

2-23

2.3.3

Enterprise

2-26

2.3.4

Consumer Electronics

2-26

2.4

Competitive Structure

2-34

2.4.1

HDD Market Share

2-34

2.4.2

Solid-State Drives (SSD)

2-44

2.4.3

Hybrid Hard Drives (HHD)

2-46

Chapter 3 

The Media Market

3-1

3.1

Industry Trends

3-1

3.2

Media Profiles

3.5

3.3 

Media Market Supplier Shares

3.10

Chapter 4

The Substrate Market

4-1

4.1

Platter Substrate Materials

4-1

4.1.1

Aluminum Disks

4-4

4.1.2

Glass Disks

4-6

4.2

Substrate Market

4-11

4.3

Substrate Suppliers

4-16

4.4

Glass Substrate Supplier Shares

4-21

Chapter 5

Recording Heads

5-1

5.1 

Thin Film Read/Write Heads

5-1

5.1.1 

Thin Film (TF) Heads

5-2

5.1.2 

Magnetoresistive (MR/AMR) Heads

5-2

5.1.3 

Giant Magnetoresistive (GMR) Heads

5-4

5.1.4 

Colossal Magnetoresistive (CMR) Heads

5-7

5.1.5 

Current-Perpendicular-To-Place (CPP) Heads

5-8

5.1.6 

Ballistic Magnetoresistance (BMR) Heads

5-8

5.2

Trends

5-10

5.3 

Recording Head Market Forecast

5-15

Chapter 6

Processing Trends And Markets

6-1

6.1 

Head Processing

6-1

6.1.1 

Head Fabrication -- CMP, Deposition, Lithography

6-6

6.1.1.1

CMP Challenges

6-11

6.1.1.2

Lithography Challenges

6-17

6.2 

Patterned Magnetic Media

6-20

6.2.1 

Conventional Media

6-21

6.2.2 

Patterned Media

6-23

6.3 

Market Analysis Of Discrete Track Media

6-33

The Perpendicular Recording Movement

6-33

A Blurry Roadmap From HDD Manufacturers

6-34

Analogy From The Semiconductor Industry

6-39

A Blurry Roadmap From Equipment Suppliers

6-40

Cost of Ownership (CoO) Analysis

6-54

6.3.1 

CMP Slurry Market

6-60

6.3.1.1

Ceria Slurry For Glass Disk Market

6-60

6.3.1.2

Oxide Slurry For Metal Disk Market

6-65

6.3.1.3

Oxide Slurry For Thin Film Head Market

6-68

LIST OF FIGURES

1.1

Hard Disk Drive Infrastructure

1-2

2.1

Hard Disk Drive Roadmap

2-2

2.2

Decrease In Average Price Of Storage

2-3

2.3

Heads Per Drive

2-5

2.4

Increase In Areal Density

2-7

2.5

HDD Market Forecast By Form Factor

2-17

2.6

HDD Market Percentages By Form Factor

2-19

2.7

1.8 -Inch HDD Market Forecast

2-20

2.8

Single Platter HDD Forecast

2-21

2.9

Single Platter HDD As Percentage Of Total

2-22

2.10

Forecast of Desktop Computers

2-24

2.11

Forecast of Portable Computers

2-25

2.12

HDD Supplier Market Shares –Total Market

2-35

2.13

HDD Supplier Market Shares – Mobile

2-36

2.14

HDD Supplier Market Shares –CE

2-37

2.15

HDD Supplier Market Shares –Desktop

2-38

2.16

HDD Supplier Market Shares – Enterprise ATA

2-39

2.17

HDD Supplier Market Shares – Enterprise

2-40

2.18

HDD Supplier Market Shares – 1.8 Inch

2-41

2.19

HDD Supplier Market Shares – 2.5 Inch

2-42

2.20

HDD Supplier Market Shares – 3.5 Inch

2-43

3.1

HDD Media Structure

3-2

3.2

Market Shares Of Media Suppliers

3-11

3.3

Market Shares Of Independent Media Suppliers

3-12

4.1

HDD Platter Demand

4-13

4.2

HDD Shipment Forecast By Media Type

4-14

4.3

HDD Shipments By Media Type As Percentage Of Total

4-15

4.4

Glass Substrate Market Shares

4-22

5.1

Detailed Structure Diagram Of A GMR Head Assembly

5-4

5.2

(A) CIP Recording Head Structure (B) CPP Head Structure

5-9

5.3

Evolution Of Slider/Air Bearing Surface

5-12

5.4

Evolution Of HDD Recording Head Formats

5-14

5.5

Market Forecast Of Recording Head Consumption

5-16

5.6

Heads Per Drive Forecast

5-17

5.7

Market Share Of Head Suppliers

5-18

6.1

Thin Film Head Structure

6-2

6.2

Critical Features In Thin Film Head Structure

6-3

6.3

Spin Valve  Head Structure

6-4

6.4

Cross-Sectional View TFH Stacks

6-7

6.5

Cross-Sectional View Of A TFH Design

6-9

6.6

CMP Slurry System For TFH Wafer Polishing

6-15

6.7

Critical Feature Trends In Thin Film Heads

6-18

6.8

Conventional Multigrain Media

6-22

6.9

Patterned Media

6-24

6.10a

Fabrication Of Patterned Media

6-26

6.10b

Fabrication Of Patterned Media

6-27

6.11

Nanoimprint Lithography Fabrication Of DTR Media

6-31

6.12

Hitachi’s Technology Roadmap

6-36

6.13

Seagate’s Technology Roadmap

6-37

6.14

Samsung’s Technology Roadmap

6-38

6.15

Magnetic Materials For DTR

6-41

6.16

Example Of A Thin Film Stack For DTR

6-42

6.17

Nanoimprint Lithography Process

6-45

6.18

DTR Film Deposition Alternatives

6-48

6.19

Ion Beam Etching Processes

6-50

6.20

Planarization By Etchback

6-53

6.21

Total Slurry Consumption For HDD Forecast

6-70

LIST OF TABLES

2.1

HDD Shipments by Form Factor

2-16

2.2

HDD Shipments by Application

2-27

2.3

Consumer Electronics HDD Shipments by Application

2-31

3.1

Substrate Materials Of Media Suppliers

3-14

4.1

Worldwide Glass Disk Capacity

4-23

6.1

Cost Of Ownership Assumptions

6-55

6.2

Cost Of Ownership Analysis

6-57

6.3

Cost Of Ownership Analysis

6-58

6.4

Slurry And Abrasive Suppliers And Products

6-62

6.5

Worldwide Ceria Slurry For Glass Media Market

6-64

6.6

Worldwide Oxide Slurry For Metal Market

6-65

6.7

Worldwide Oxide Slurry For Thin Film Heads

6-69