SBIR Phase I: Coextruded Polymer Multilayer Optical Data Storage Medium

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.