TE Material Based 3-D Optical Memory without Inter-Page Cross Talk

We propose to develop a bit-plane oriented three-dimensional (3-D) optical memory based on stacked-layer transparent electron trapping (ET) thin films. The key feature of the proposed 3-D memory is its page addressability. By suitably controlling a voltage applied normal to each of the ET film layers, a 2-D memory page can be written into the selected layer without causing cross talk in any other layers. The stored data in each ET layer can be retrieved with high fidelity. The elimination of inter-page cross talk removes the most critical obstacle that has been encountered for a long tine in the development of ET materials based 3-D optical memory. It would lead to a practical 3-D optical storage system with huge storage capacity, parallel access capability as well as very high retrieval accuracy and low bit error rate. In Phase I, ET thin films sandwiched between transparent electrodes will be fabricated and characterized to determine the feasibility of the electric page-addressability. The configuration of the stacked-layer ET media will be designed for a prototype 3-D memory system. The prototype will be developed and evaluated in Phase II. '