Time interval analysis errors in measuring recording media transition jitter

Media transition position jitter noise can be a dominant signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) issue in magnetic recording systems with magnetoresistive (MR) heads and (0,k) PRML channels, since the high MR head “gain” emphasizes media jitter noise over electronic noise, and (0,k) codes are sensitive to dibit jitter. Time interval analyzer (TIA) instruments are useful for measuring transition jitter (write jitter), since they can separate write jitter from electronic noise (read jitter) with minimal synchronization and speed variation difficulties. This paper analyzes TIA errors due to read channel intersymbol interference (ISI), which occurs even though TIA measurements are made with periodic LF or HF bit patterns at equal bit intervals “T”, which should be unchanged by ISI. Theory and data show that TIA measurements underestimate jitter by as much as 40% at low channel bit density D_c≡P₅₀/T≈1.5-1.8, and overstate jitter at high density. Even though typical TIA jitter measurements are made between nonadjacent pattern pulses, these errors still occur due to ISI by unmeasured neighbor pulses. It is shown that similar errors occur with TIA electronic read jitter noise measurements. At channel densities above D_c≈2.6, channel amplification of transition jitter occurs, which may be a factor in PRML channel bit density limits