Enabling Technology for a New Optical Random Access Memory Architecture

Trends in information technology have focused attention on the need for the storage and rapid retrieval of ever-increasing amounts of data in compact media. Incremental improvements in existing systems will be inadequate for meeting long range needs. Hence, system designers have begun to contemplate new storage device architectures. UNIAX Corp. a world leader in the development of optoelectronic devices based on semiconducting polymers, proposes to work with Information Optics Corp. (formed in 1990 by optical data storage pioneer James Russell) to develop a light source array which will enable a concept for a revolutionary new method of portable, high density storage that requires no moving parts. Although now on the verge of commercial introduction, polymer electroluminescent devices are not yet suitable for use in this Optical Random Access Memory (ORAM) system. The emission from these devices is neither narrow enough nor bright enough. However, recent work, performed at a number of academic laboratories around the world, indicates that microcavities built incorporating electroluminescent polymers have characteristics suitable for the ORAM application. The following proposal outlines a program which UNIAX will undertake to examine this possibility. If successful, Phase II would include the demonstration of an ORAM system incorporating this device.