SBIR Phase I: Coextruded Polymer Multilayer Optical Data Storage Medium

该小型企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目描述了一种结构化聚合物材料，该材料有可能显着提高光学数据存储的密度和容量，并将其转化为市场解决方案，基于其低成本，便携性，低延迟，低能耗和长寿命，颠覆和开辟新市场。该创新是一种多层薄膜，采用连续卷对卷共挤出工艺制造，可生产数百米的材料，可切割并组装成常见的光盘格式。 本提案中的工作范围补充了已经取得的重大科学进展，以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，以及写入过程的优化，以及用于表征和客户评估的光盘原型的创建。 我们预计在第一代设备中实现技术突破，显示出色的使用寿命和存储容量。该项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力解决了对廉价，持久的归档数据存储的需求呈指数级增长的问题。大数据？年龄磁带由于其低能耗和大容量而成为广泛使用的存档介质，但存在寿命有限、成本高和访问速度慢的问题。磁性硬盘驱动器虽然速度快且容量大，但价格昂贵得多，消耗大量能量，并且仍然受到寿命有限的影响。一个1 TB的光盘将是一个引人注目的解决方案，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。 光学数据存储相对于磁带的快速访问时间可以通过将被动存档引入近线访问来打开新的市场。在医疗保健、安全、个人数据存储和媒体分发方面的应用表明了更大的潜力。这项创新还可以减少能源使用，并且随着数据生成的持续增长，它可能是解锁日益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.