ADVANCED OPTICAL HEAD TECHNOLOGY

MICROWAVE MONOLITHICS, INC., HAS (WITH PRIVATE FUNDS) DEVELOPED A PROPRIETARY OPTICAL DEVICE (POD) FOR FOCUSING LASER BEAMS DOWN TO SUBMICRON SPOTS FOR OPTICAL DISC/DRUM APPLICATIONS. THESE POD'S ARE CHARACTERIZED BY MILLIGRAM MASSES, HIGH NUMERICAL APERTURE, DIFFRACTION LIMITED PERFORMANCE AT FULL NUMERICAL APERTURE, FAULT TOLERANCE, AND THE ABILITY TO OPERATE AT WAVELENGTHS MANY TIMES SHORTER THAN THE WAVELENGTHS OF CURRENT OPTICAL DISC SYSTEMS. THROUGH THE USE OF SUCH A POD, DISC INFORMATION CAPACITY CAN BE THEORETICALLY INCREASED BY A FACTOR AS HIGH AS 500, I.E. TO AN ESTIMATED 5624 GIGA BYTE FOR A 30 CM DISK. WITHOUT INCREASE OF DISC ROTATION SPEED, A SINGLE SUCH POD INCREASES DATA TRANSFER RATE BY MORE THAN A FACTOR OF 22. THE EXTREMELY LOW MASS OF THESE POD'S ALLOWS HEADS BASED UPON POD ARRAYS, WITH ALL ARRAY ELEMENTS SIMULTANEOUSLY AVAILABLE FOR USE. ADDITIONALLY, SEVERAL SUCH HEADS CAN IN PRINCIPLE READ OR WRITE FROM A DISC OR DRUM SIMULTANEOUSLY WITHOUT MECHANICAL OR OPTICAL INTERFERENCE. COMBINING THESETWO TECHNIQUES, A FURTHER HUNDREDFOLD INCREASE IN DATA TRANSFER RATES (BEYOND THE FACTOR 22 PREVIOUSLY MENTIONED) IS THEORETICALLY POSSIBLE.