Fujifilm is researching the capabilities of Strontium Ferrite (SrFe) and theorises that the material will be able to achieve 224Gbit/in² area density. The company is looking to develop a way to use the material to manufacture tape cartridges with a 400TB capacity.

The magnetic tapes in use today are usually coated with Barium Ferrite (BaFe), and one such tape cartage can store up to 12TB. The current tape cartage technology is build on the “LTO-8” standard that was set back in 2010 and introduced to the market in 2017. Tape cartridges may be far from main stream, but are used to store big chunks of data over a long period of time.

Image credit: AnandTech

According to Fujifilm “the majority of the magnetic properties of SrFe are superior to those of BaFe, which will enable us to reach a higher level of performance whilst further reducing the size of the particles.” According to Blocks&Files, even though Fujifilm has started development of tape cartridges that will use SrFe, it is expected that the first drives using the material are still a couple of years away from hitting the market. BaFe drives with an actual capacity of 400TB are even further into the future, with availability expected around 2030.

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