MFDigital CD DVD Information Library
Friday, June 26, 2009
 
Australian Researchers to Create Next Generation optical Discs
Futuristic discs with a storage capacity 2,000 times that of current DVDs could be just around the corner, thanks to new research from Swinburne University of technology. Researchers from the university's Centre for Micro-Photonics have demonstrated how nanotechnology can enable the creation of 'five dimensional' discs with huge storage capacities.

The research, carried out by Mr Peter Zijlstra, Dr James Chon and Professor Min Gu was published today in the scientific journal Nature. The Nature article describes how the researchers were able to use nanoscopic particles to exponentially increase the amount of information contained on a single disc. "We were able to show how nanostructured material can be incorporated onto a disc in order to increase data capacity, without increasing the physical size of the disc," Gu said.

Discs currently have three spatial dimensions, but using nanoparticles the Swinburne researchers were able to introduce a spectral -- or colour -- dimension as well as a polarisation dimension. "These extra dimensions are the key to creating ultra-high capacity discs," Gu said. To create the 'colour dimension' the researchers inserted gold nanorods onto a disc's surface. Because nanoparticles react to light according to their shape, this allowed the researchers to record information in a range of different colour wavelengths on the same physical disc location.

This is a major improvement on current DVDs that are recorded in a single colour wavelength using a laser. The researchers were also able to introduce an extra dimension onto the disc using polarisation. When they projected light waves onto the disc, the direction of the electric field contained within them aligned with the gold nanorods. This allowed the researchers to record different layers of information at different angles.

"The polarisation can be rotated 360 degrees," Chon said. "So for example, we were able to record at zero degree polarisation. Then on top of that, we were able to record another layer of information at 90 degrees polarisation, without them interfering with each other." Some issues, such as the speed at which the discs can be written on, are yet to be resolved. However the researchers are confident the discs will be commercially available within 5 - 10 years. They have signed an agreement with Korea-based Samsung, one of the world's largest electronics manufacturers.

The discs are likely to have immediate applications in a range of fields. They would be valuable for storing extremely large medical files such as MRIs and could also provide a boon in the financial, military and security arenas. Last month, US technology giant General Electric said its researchers had developed a holographic disc which can store the equivalent of 100 standard DVDs.


Source: CDRinfo

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- posted by MF Digital Marketing @ 11:04 AM
Friday, March 20, 2009
 
Optical Storage Industry to Introduce Certification For the Longevity of DVD Recordable Media
CDs21 solutions, an association that promotes CDs and other optical storage media announced plans to contribute in the development of a longevity certification program of DVD +R and DVD-R media. The association, which was founded in 2001 and was organized to promote CDs (compact discs), announced that its plans to start a series of tests in DVD recordable discs available today and provide specific certifications to all those media that would successfully show a longevity and reliability of 30 years or more.

The tests, which will be performed by the NPO Archive Test Center in Japan in four different labs, are expected to start in the following three months. The testing procedure will be based on the ISO/IEC 10995, a global standard for optical media archive life testing for recordable and rewritable DVDs. ISO International approved the standard last year and it is the culmination of joint development efforts by OSTA and ECMA. It defines the standard procedures for media archive life testing and classification.

The standard specifies an accelerated aging test method for estimating the life expectancy for the retrievability of information stored on recordable or rewritable optical disks. The method includes specific measurements of the electrical signals on the discs (readability), during the various phases of the aging test.

CDs21 solutions has also proposed a certification for all those media that will prove to be reliable at least for 30 years. Today, the majority of DVD disc makers claim that their discs are reliable for more than 50 years.

The certification can be printed on the package of the DVD recordable discs. As a result, end-users will be able to select the media life expectancy best suited to their application requirements.

source: CDRFreaks

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- posted by MF Digital Marketing @ 11:07 AM
Monday, November 17, 2008
 
New ISO standard Gives Recommendations For Care of Optical Discs
A new International Standard establishes general principles and gives recommendations for the care and handling of optical disks during use with a view to maximizing their effective life.

ISO 18938:2008 establishes general principles for the care and handling of digital optical discs during use. It addresses the issues of physical integrity of the medium necessary to preserve access to the recorded data (information).

It applies to the families of compact disc (CD), digital versatile disc (DVD), high definition digital versatile disc (HD DVD), Blu-ray disc (BD), and any hybrids of these families, as well as each type of disc within a family, e.g. injection moulded [read-only memory (ROM)], dye-layer [recordable (R)] and phase change [rewriteable (RW), random access memory (RAM)] technologies.

As with other media there are concerns about the life expectancy of recorded information on optical discs which, like paper records, photographic film and magnetic tape, can be subject to both damage and decay.

ISO 18938:2008 addresses the issues of physical integrity of the medium necessary to preserve access to the recorded data. These include use and handling environments, including pollutants, temperature and humidity and light exposure, contamination concerns inspection, cleaning and maintenance, including cleaning methods and frequency, transportation disasters, including water, fire, construction and post-disaster procedures as well as staff training.

The effective life of optical disks can also be increased or decreased significantly depending upon the conditions under which they are stored.

Source: CDRinfo

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- posted by MF Digital Marketing @ 10:18 AM