General Competition (November 1994)

A High-Density and High-Speed Read-Only Optical Data Storage System

Sponsor: Calimetrics, Inc.

• Project Performance Period: 2/1/1995 - 3/31/1997
• Total project (est.): $2,495,000.00
• Requested ATP funds: $1,808,000.00

Calimetrics proposes to develop a CD-ROM (compact-disc, read-only memory) disc and associated CD player with a tenfold increase over conventional single-speed CD-ROM technology in both storage capacity and data transfer rate. The key to the technology is to etch the pits, whose patterns physically store information on disc surfaces, to a range of depths instead of the single pit depth of current practice. Not only the pit's presence or absence, but also its depth, can then serve to represent data. It takes fewer variable-depth pits than single-depth pits to encode the same amount of information, enabling the same amount of disc real estate to hold more information. One central challenge is to refine a laser technique so that it can produce variable-depth pits with sufficient precision and speed. A second challenge is to develop a cost-effective, compact optical reading head that can reliably track, focus on, and read the variable-depth pits. A laser-based interferometric technique will be developed for this role.

For project information:

Michael O'Neill, (510) 526-2911

ATP Project Manager

Thomas Lettieri, (301) 975-3496
thomas.lettieri@nist.gov