Hello! I'm Michael
I’m an accomplished engineer with a Master of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Minnesota and over 13 years of experience that covers a broad range of technical expertise and leadership roles. I have an extensive background in magnetic recording, product development, optimization algorithms, firmware development, and statistical process control, with a proven track record of success driving complex, multi-disciplinary projects from conception to volume production.
I'm driven by a passion for cutting-edge innovation and its transformative impact on the world around us. I'm highly regarded for my ability to find creative solutions to complex technical problems and my ambitious approach to intimidating challenges. I thrive in fast-paced and dynamic work environments where I can take full advantage of my ability to quickly adapt and make calculated decisions. I have exceptional written and verbal communication skills with a propensity for cross-functional collaboration and driving organizational success.
I'm always interested to learn about new opportunities where I can continue to grow and develop my professional skills.
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Michael Cordle
M.S. Electrical Engineering
Phone:
+1 218-349-8933
Email:
Location:
Longmont, Colorado
EXPERIENCE
2023-Present
Firmware Engineer
GARMIN INTERNATIONAL
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Develop and support NFC-based features such as contactless payment into Garmin's line of Outdoor and Fitness devices.
2022-2023
Technology Architect, CTO Office
SEAGATE TECHNOLOGY
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Engage with industry-partners, consortia, academia and open-communities to understand industry mega-trends and influence Seagate’s research and product development strategy
2017-2022
Device Physics Research Engineer
SEAGATE TECHNOLOGY
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Design and assess deep learning models and advanced optimization algorithms
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Develop and implement in situ recording physics metrology tools
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Perform disk drive reliability experiments and statistical analysis
2015-2017
Design Engineering Lead
SEAGATE TECHNOLOGY
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​Provide strategic work direction to engineering team members to meet product design requirements for performance, reliability, and cost
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Analyze and troubleshoot complex cross-functional technical issues.
2011-2015
Integration & Development Engineer
SEAGATE TECHNOLOGY
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Manage the inter-dependencies of sub-systems within a hard disk drive throughout various phases of product design
2010-2011
Electrical Engineer
FOSS NORTH AMERICA
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Design and integrate process control systems for quality control in the agricultural and food processing industries
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Develop software applications to keep track of batches and trend fat and protein content of food products
2009-2010
IT Support Technician
MAURICES INCORPORATED
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Provide computer and network support for corporate staff and field managers
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Setup, troubleshoot and maintain Cisco networking equipment
EDUCATION
2017
M.S. in Electrical Engineering
UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA - TWIN CITIES
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Thesis: Effects of Radius and Skew on Areal Density in an HAMR Hard Disk Drive
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GPA: 3.45/4.00
2010
B.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering
UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA - DULUTH
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Minors: Computer Science, Applied Mathematics
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Senior Design: Variable Frequency Drive for Three-Phase Induction Motors
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Study Abroad: Waikato University, Hamilton, New Zealand Spring 2006
SKILLS
PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES
Python
10/10
C
10/10
Matlab
10/10
C#
9/10
C++
8/10
Assembly
8/10
Javascript
6/10
PROTOCOLS
I2C
10/10
UART
10/10
SATA
10/10
SAS
10/10
NVMe
9/10
PCIe
8/10
Modbus
7/10
OPC
7/10
CERTIFICATIONS
NCEES Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) Certification
Six Sigma Brown Belt Training Certificate
TOOLS & SOFTWARE
MS Office
10/10
VS Code
10/10
Perforce
10/10
Git
10/10
Matlab
10/10
SAS JMP
10/10
Vim
10/10
Gerrit
9/10
Confluence
8/10
Kepware
8/10
Solidworks
7/10
PUBLICATIONS
IMPACT OF RADIUS AND SKEW ANGLE ON AREAL DENSITY IN A HEAT ASSISTED MAGNETIC RECORDING HARD DISK DRIVE
AIP Advances (2018)
https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5007725
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ABSTRACT:
This study aims to investigate the impact that factors such as skew, radius, and transition curvature have on areal density capability in heat-assisted magnetic recording hard disk drives. We explore a “ballistic seek” approach for capturing in-situ scan line images of the magnetization footprint on the recording media, and extract parametric results of recording characteristics such as transition curvature. We take full advantage of the significantly improved cycle time to apply a statistical treatment to relatively large samples of experimental curvature data to evaluate measurement capability. Quantitative analysis of factors that impact transition curvature reveals an asymmetry in the curvature profile that is strongly correlated to skew angle. Another less obvious skew-related effect is an overall decrease in curvature as skew angle increases. Using conventional perpendicular magnetic recording as the reference case, we characterize areal density capability as a function of recording position.
EFFECTS OF SKEW ANGLE AND TRANSITION CURVATURE IN HAMR HARD DISK DRIVES
University of Minnesota Graduate Thesis (2017)
https://hdl.handle.net/11299/188808
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ABSTRACT:
Continued areal density growth in hard disk drives (HDD) is becoming increasingly difficult to achieve as Perpendicular Magnetic Recording (PMR) approaches the super paramagnetic limit of ~1Tb/in2. Heat-Assisted Magnetic Recording (HAMR) is on the verge of becoming the next generation of high-density recording technology. Understanding the physical mechanisms behind the unique recording characteristics will be a critical step in the maturity of HAMR technology as it continues to make progress towards production. A notable difference between HAMR and PMR that has drawn a lot of recent attention is the curved shape of a recorded transition. Minimizing transition curvature is understood to be crucial for improving ADC, and current studies have shown that it could be imposing a significant limitation for HAMR. Here, we provide a comparison of HAMR and PMR ADC profiles in an HDD. We explore a new technique proposed for capturing magnetization footprint images through HDD testing, and take full advantage of a significantly improved cycle time to apply a statistical treatment to experimental curvature data to provide a quantitative analysis of factors that impact transition curvature in HAMR and PMR HDDs. We identify geometric effects resulting from skew angle that correlate well to changes in transition curvature. We also show the impact of laser power on transition curvature, and discuss how an understanding of this information can be used to quickly identify uncontrolled variables in an experiment.
HEAT ASSISTED RECORDING: ADVANCES IN RECORDING INTEGRATION
IEEE INTERMAG Conference (2017)
https://doi.org/10.1109/INTMAG.2017.8007625
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ABSTRACT:
Differences between heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) and conventional perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR) for signal processing of the written track by one and two reader multisensor magnetic recording (MSMR) are explored using spinstand measurements. Tracks written with HAMR heads are shown to have more curvature compared with those written with modern PMR writers. We introduce two signal processing techniques in order to determine the merits and explore the recording physics tradeoffs for this complex system. To first order, we see twice as much bit error rate (BER) gain for the HAMR written track-on readback-using two reader MSMR, than the PMR. This difference we assign to the lower electronic signal-to-noise (SNR) ratio for the HAMR written track. In order to replicate practical conditions, we stress the MSMR system by applying increased adjacent track squeeze and displacing the two readers from the center of the track. Under these conditions we can resolve differences between the PMR and HAMR systems. Increased adjacent track squeeze appears to trim the broad and curved track edges, until the on-track signal starts to degrade. Increased offset of the readers from the center of the track offers improved the media (spatial) SNR, but we fail to harvest all those gains into BER across the range. We hypothesize that this is due to increasing distortion, a combination of track edge noise and reading of the encroaching tracks.
HIGH TRACK PITCH CAPABILITY FOR HAMR RECORDING
IEEE Transactions on Magnetics (2017)
https://doi.org/10.1109/TMAG.2016.2614913
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ABSTRACT:
Differences in the areal density capability limits for heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) and conventional perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR) are explored using spinstand measurements and micromagnetic modeling. The written track curvature and the transition width are measured with a special technique that mitigates cross-track averaging effects due to finite read sensor width. Tracks written with HAMR heads are shown to have more curvature compared with those written with modern PMR writers. Both broadening and transition curvatures are present cross track, that can be described reasonably well using Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert modeling and indicates the effective gradient profile dominates. However, as we get to the track edge, we see disagreement between the model and the experiment, which is not currently reconciled. The curvature and broadening effects appear to challenge not only the downtrack bit resolution during readback, but also the cross-track written width with increased linear density. We discuss different near field transducer (NFT) designs, and comparing narrow versus wide thermal profile NFT designs, we can see that track pitch appears to weakly optimize to a maximal cross-track gradient point. Experimental measurements of constant bit error rate for different linear and track densities indicate a significant opportunity for high track density recording using HAMR. The difference appears to be related to the ability for HAMR to address high track pitches with a minimal increase in risk of adjacent track interference compared with PMR. We revise NFT head-to-media spacing requirements when we attempt to account for interference effects.
RADIUS AND SKEW EFFECTS IN AN HAMR HARD DISK DRIVE
IEEE Transactions on Magnetics (2016)
https://doi.org/10.1109/TMAG.2015.2478115
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ABSTRACT:
Heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) has continued to make significant progress toward production and remains the most promising technology to enable areal density growth beyond 1 Tb/in 2 . In this paper, we present an experimental study on the effects of disk radius and head skew angle in a HAMR hard disk drive. We demonstrate the dependence of laser power on disk radius and the sensitivities to several additional factors that can potentially change that characteristic. We also contrast adjacent track interference and areal density capability performance in drive to conventional perpendicular recording and their respective sensitivities to radius and skew angle.
PATENTS
LASER ADJUSTMENT DURING FIELD OPERATION OF A HEAT-ASSISTED MAGNETIC RECORDING DATA STORAGE DEVICE
During field operation of a heat-assisted magnetic recording data storage device, a laser adjustment procedure is performed. The laser adjustment procedure involves writing on a recording medium at least three tracks. If a bit error rate of a middle tracks has increased, the laser current is swept while recording test tracks to determine a new laser current that results in a minimum bit error rate. The new laser current is used for subsequent write operations.
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DETERMINING A HAMR LASER POWER THAT REDUCES ADJACENT TRACK INTERFERENCE
A laser power applied to a recording head is changed for a plurality of iterations. Each iteration involves, via the recording head at each laser power, writing multiple adjacent tracks to a heat-assisted recording medium and determining a bit error rate for at least one of the adjacent tracks at each laser power. A first laser power is found that achieves a minimum bit error rate of the iterations. An operational value of laser power that is smaller than the first laser power is used during operational recording to reduce adjacent track interference.
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ADAPTIVE HAMR LASER POWER DATA STORAGE DEVICE
A data storage device and associated methods may provide at least a data storage medium that is separated from a heat assisted magnetic recording data writer and is connected to a controller. The controller can be configured to change a laser power of the heat assisted magnetic recording data writer in response to a tested bit error rate of a median data track of a plurality of adjacent data tracks reaching an identified threshold.
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PROCEDURE THAT ACHIEVES A TARGET AREAL DENSITY FOR A HEAT-ASSISTED RECORDING SYSTEM
A recording head writes data to a recording medium for one or more iterations. Each iteration involves adjusting a linear data density, a track pitch, and a laser power. From the iterations, a selected linear data density, a selected track pitch, and a selected laser power are determined that together achieve a target areal density and are used to write user data to the recording medium during operation of a hard disk drive.
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PERSONAL LIFE
Hi, I'm Michael! I grew up in northern Minnesota as the oldest of 4 siblings. I'm very active, love the outdoors, and have an endless number of adventurous hobbies and interests.