Characteristics of multilayer magnetic film plated wire from various vendors

Wire with diameters from 100 to 130 microns were obtained from 7 suppliers, and 56 to 66 micron diameter wires from 4 suppliers. The wires are described by the number of magnetic layers, their nominal thickness and their composition. The hard-axis hysteresis loops are examined to determine the hard-axis coercive force, magnetic saturation flux, and the effective anisotropy field. The wires are all evaluated to determine their memory performance. They are then ranked according to their digit, word, and crawl windows; by signal output and uniformity; by skew and magnetostriction and their uniformity; by the tension and torsion sensitivity of their pulse signal; and by their skew and pulse signal stability when aged in a hard axis field. All of the wires are expected to perform satisfactorily, but they show large differences in their nominal operating currents, margins, strain sensitivity and magnetic aging characteristics. Correlation between parameters provides insight into the origin of some of the differences between wires.