Israeli company Mempile, a leader in next generation optical storage technology, said that it has proven its TeraDisc technology to be capable of storing up to one TeraByte (TB) of data. The company recently demonstrated this concept to several Japanese CE manufacturers by recording and reading over 100 virtual layers on a single DVD-size optical disc.

The demonstration showed Mempile’s capability of recording at least 500GB of data on what appears to be a simple plastic transparent disc – 300GB more than the announced roadmap of competing blue-laser technologies in the year 2010.

The company’s patented non-linear two-photon technology allows for 3D recording of transparent virtual layers on the entire volume of the disc. The recent demonstration proved that more than 100 layers could be recorded and read – showing storage capabilities of slightly less than 300GB over a thickness of 0.6 mm of active material. By increasing this active material to the thickness of a DVD, 1.2 mm, Mempile claims it will be able to demonstrate the recording and reading of at least 500GB of data. Future optimization will allow the recording of 200 layers and of up to 5GB of data per layer.

Existing optical media store the data through the use of light-reflective semi-transparent technologies. While increasing in capacity, even the newer blue-laser technologies are nonetheless limited to a very small number of layers. The partial reflection from the multiple layers leads to signal reduction simultaneously raising background noise and coherent interferences.

Mempile, together with such partners as Arkema, a leading global chemical player headquartered in France, and Memory Tech, Japan’s largest manufacturer of optical discs, are focusing on the development of an inexpensive volumetric optical disc and a high-density disc drive able to be made available at consumer prices.

Story filed 01.04.07