Patent ID: 6852426

Claim:
A longitudinal magnetic recording medium having improved thermal stability and signal-to-medium noise ratio (“SMNR”), comprising: (a) a non-magnetic substrate having at least one surface; (b) a layer stack overlying said at least one surface, said layer stack comprising a plurality of vertically spaced-apart ferromagnetic layers, each vertically adjacent pair of said ferromagnetic layers being spaced-apart by a respective non-magnetic spacer layer, wherein: (i) at least one of said plurality of vertically adjacent, spaced-apart pairs of ferromagnetic layers forms an anti-ferromagnetically coupled media (“AFC”) component of said magnetic recording medium, said AFC component comprising an upper and lower ferromagnetic layer wherein the lower ferromagnetic layer has a thickness less than that of the upper ferromagnetic layer; and (ii) at least one of said plurality of vertically adjacent, spaced-apart pairs of ferromagnetic layers forms a laminated media (“LM”) component of said magnetic recording medium; and (c) a protective overcoat layer directly on an upper surface of the uppermost ferromagnetic layer of said LM component.