SBIR Phase I: Coextruded Polymer Multilayer Optical Data Storage Medium

这个小企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目描述了一种结构聚合物材料，该材料具有显著提高光数据存储密度和容量的潜力，并将其转化为市场解决方案，基于其低成本、可移植性、低延迟、低能耗和长寿命，颠覆并开辟了新的市场。这项创新是一种多层薄膜，通过连续的卷对卷共挤出工艺生产出数百米长的材料，这些材料可以切割并组装成普通的光盘格式。本提案的工作范围补充了已经取得的重大科学进展，将创新转化为商业上可行的产品。该提案概述了对薄膜均匀性、稳定性和寿命的详细检查，以及对写入过程的优化，以及为特性和客户评估创建光盘原型。我们期待在技术上取得突破，在第一代设备中显示出出色的使用寿命和存储容量。该项目的广泛影响/商业潜力解决了对廉价、持久的档案数据存储的需求，该需求在全球呈指数级增长。大数据?的年龄。磁带以其能耗低、容量大等优点成为广泛使用的档案介质，但存在使用寿命有限、成本高、存取速度慢等缺点。磁性硬盘驱动器虽然速度快、容量大，但价格相当昂贵，消耗大量能源，而且使用寿命有限。1TB （1TB）的光盘将是一个令人信服的解决方案，它结合了低成本、高密度、长寿命和低能耗，并将颠覆档案存储市场。光数据存储相对于磁带的快速访问时间可以通过将被动归档引入近线访问而开辟新的市场。在医疗保健、安全、个人数据存储和媒体分发领域的应用显示出相当大的潜力。随着数据的不断增长，这一创新还可以减少能源的使用，并可能成为开启越来越重要的绿色存储技术的关键。

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project describes a structured polymer material with the potential to significantly increase density and capacity of optical data storage and its translation to market solution, disrupting and opening new markets based on its low cost, portability, low latency, low energy consumption, and long lifetime. The innovation is a multilayer film, fabricated in a continuous roll-to-roll co-extrusion process to produce hundreds of meters of material that can be cut and assembled in to common disc format. The scope of work in this proposal complements significant scientific progress that has already been made to translate the innovation into commercially viable product. The proposal outlines detailed examination of the film uniformity, stability and longevity as well as optimization of the writing process, and creation of disc prototypes for characterization and customer evaluation. We anticipate making technical breakthroughs that show outstanding lifetime and storage capacity in a first-generation device.The broader impact/commercial potential of this project addresses the need for inexpensive, long-lasting archival data storage is increasing exponentially in the ?Big Data? age. Magnetic tape has been a widely used archival medium due to its low energy usage and large capacity, but suffers from limited lifetime, high cost, and slow access speeds. Magnetic hard drives, while fast and high capacity, are considerably more expensive, consume large amounts of energy, and still suffer from limited lifetime. A one terabyte (1TB) optical disc would be a compelling solution, combining low cost with high density, long life, and low energy consumption, and would disruptive to the archival storage market. The fast access time of optical data storage relative to magnetic tape could open new markets by bringing passive archiving into nearline access. Applications in healthcare, security, personal data storage, and media distribution suggest a considerably larger potential. This innovation also enables a reduction in energy usage, and can be the key to unlock increasingly important green storage technologies as data generation continues to grow.