Significantly Enhance Hard Disk Drive Performance by Using Titanium Foil Disk Substrates

The Internet and computers are a part of our daily life and data storage is an important element in both. Over the years compute power has increased significantly but high speed, economical data storage has been lacking. Today, concerns range from how fast can information be accessed, how much storage is required, and the energy costs to operate data storage equipment and facilities. More than 60% of the energy used by storage hardware goes to keep disks in a hard disk drive spinning. The thick disks used in these products dictate the energy consumption and limit the number of platters that can be mounted in each unit. The objective of this research is to replace the thick disks with very thin titanium platters to significantly reduce inertia. The unit can now be powered on/off decreasing energy consumption. Many more disks can be housed in each unit increasing storage capacity, and the device can be started rapidly achieving high speeds for faster data throughput. The work performed during Phase I showed the potential of achieving greater than 3X more storage per watt of power consumed. In Phase II prototypes will be fabricated to demonstrate recording density, and a manufacturing process will be developed. The objective in this study is to replace the thick disk substrate and keep all other components in the hard disk drive unchanged to allow for easy adoption of the technology. Commercial Applications and Other Benefits: If this project is successful it will provide customers and manufacturers of storage hardware a choice to select this technology versus conventional hard disks. The new disk will be marketed installed in storage products and the technology will be available for licensing. Additionally, slimmer disk drives that can operate with low voltage batteries and power sources in portable appliances can be developed.