Toshiba Achieves World’s First Demonstration of Substantial Improvements in HDD Recording Performance with Microwave Assisted Switching – Microwave Assisted Magnetic Recording (MAS-MAMR)
– Aiming for Early Commercialization of Large-Capacity Nearline HDDs of over 30TB-
Toshiba Group has announced the world’s first demonstration*1 of HDD recording performance improvement with Microwave Assisted Switching-Microwave Assisted Magnetic Recording (MAS-MAMR), a next-generation magnetic recording technology. The demonstration confirms that the technology delivers substantial storage capacity gains, and Toshiba now aims to realize early commercialization of nearline HDDs with capacities exceeding 30TB.

Toshiba is placing considerable R&D effort on MAMR, a breakthrough technology that boosts HDD recording density. In 2021, the company started shipment of 18TB HDDs that apply Flux Control MAMR (FC-MAMR™)*2, which uses spin torque oscillators to assist recording. MAS-MAMR is expected to improve recording density beyond that of FC-MAMR™ by locally exposing microwave to -recording media. However, this was not shown to be possible in practice until the recent demonstration.
Toward proving the fundamental superiority of MAS-MAMR, Toshiba has been promoting its development with Showa Denko K.K. (SDK), an HDD medium manufacturer, and TDK Corporation (TDK), a HDD head manufacturer. This three-way cooperation recently bore fruit in the demonstration of MAS-MAMR’s improved recording performance.
Toshiba Achieves World’s First Demonstration of Substantial Improvements in HDD Recording Performance with Microwave Assisted Switching – Microwave Assisted Magnetic Recording (MAS-MAMR)
– Aiming for Early Commercialization of Large-Capacity Nearline HDDs of over 30TB-
Toshiba Group has announced the world’s first demonstration*1 of HDD recording performance improvement with Microwave Assisted Switching-Microwave Assisted Magnetic Recording (MAS-MAMR), a next-generation magnetic recording technology. The demonstration confirms that the technology delivers substantial storage capacity gains, and Toshiba now aims to realize early commercialization of nearline HDDs with capacities exceeding 30TB.

Toshiba is placing considerable R&D effort on MAMR, a breakthrough technology that boosts HDD recording density. In 2021, the company started shipment of 18TB HDDs that apply Flux Control MAMR (FC-MAMR™)*2, which uses spin torque oscillators to assist recording. MAS-MAMR is expected to improve recording density beyond that of FC-MAMR™ by locally exposing microwave to -recording media. However, this was not shown to be possible in practice until the recent demonstration.
Toward proving the fundamental superiority of MAS-MAMR, Toshiba has been promoting its development with Showa Denko K.K. (SDK), an HDD medium manufacturer, and TDK Corporation (TDK), a HDD head manufacturer. This three-way cooperation recently bore fruit in the demonstration of MAS-MAMR’s improved recording performance.