Blue laser disc to allow 200GB capacity

04 Sep 2006

Media pioneer TDK achieves "massive" capabilities for high definition blue laser technology.

Digital recording solutions company TDK, Garden City, NY, US, says it has reached a landmark in the development of recordable blue laser technology, achieving a groundbreaking capacity of 200 GB. Surpassing existing optical media technologies several times over, a 200GB blue laser disc would double the capacity of TDK's existing 100GB Blu-ray prototype. One of TDK's new 200 GB blue laser discs could store up to 18 hours of high definition video (encoded at 24 Mbit/s).

The initial Blu-ray Disc standard allows for 25 GB single layer Blu-ray Discs and 50 GB dual layer Blu-ray Discs. However, a recent signal processing innovation stretches the physical limits of optical media, realizing 33.3 GB capacity for each of the disc's six layers. As with the 100 GB disc, and other Blu-ray Disc media, TDK's 200 GB blue laser disc is single sided.

"The ambitious technology roadmap for Blu-ray has now been confirmed as realistic, with landmarks such as this proving the long term value of our format against its rivals," said Bruce Youmans, TDK VP Product Research & Development. "TDK was the first to develop a prototype 100 GB recordable Blu-ray Disc and our achievement in creating a 200 GB disc affirms our position as a pioneer in advancing the capabilities of optical media."

TDK's material science developments have played a key role in enabling the development of 200 GB blue laser disc technology. The company's 100GB prototype disc uses four 25 GB layers to reach 100 GB capacity. For the 200 GB technology development, TDK has stretched the physical margins of the Blu-ray Disc format, enabling a disc to store up to 33.3 GB per layer while staying within the tolerances of the BD playback specifications.

TDK technologies are redefining state-of-the-art optical media specifications and performance. TDK's new inorganic film formulation provides absolute stability with narrow track pitches and high recording densities, such as those employed by the Blu-ray Disc format. The formulation's optical qualities are so stable that TDK has already been able to achieve 6x (216 Mbit/s) recording speed on a 25 GB write-once Blu-ray Disc prototype.

Because Blu-ray Disc media's data tracks are quite narrow even in comparison with DVD media, precise, stable interaction between the laser and the recording material is particularly critical to ensuring error-free recording and playback. This is why TDK developed Durabis 2, an innovative hard coating technology that makes bare Blu-ray Disc media a reality by protecting the disc surface against common contaminants such as scratches and fingerprints.

Durabis 2 increases the scratch resistance of Blu-ray Disc media by a factor of 100 compared with a non treated disc surface, as demonstrated in rigorous testing. Because the Durabis 2 coating technology rapidly discharges static electricity, the discs also resist the accumulation of dust.

About TDK

TDK Corp. is a global electronics company based in Japan. It was established in 1935 to commercialize "ferrite," a key material in electronics and magnetics. The company today is a leader in the development of next-generation technologies such as Blu-ray Disc recording media, an optical disc ideally suited for high-definition video recording. TDK offers a full line of recordable DVD and CD media, digital camcorder tapes, professional data storage solutions including LTO Ultrium media.