30 Gigabyte on a disk

The future of optical data storage is violet

Thomas Weber, Martinsried Two disk formats are presently fighting for first place as successor of DVD: Blu-ray and HD-DVD. Both of them use the novel violet laser diodes and both are leading edge to what cost effective optics can achieve. According to this quality inspection during the disk manufacturing process will become challenging.
At the end of the 90ies, when DVD just left the status of development technology leaders like Sony and Philips started to think about the next generation of optical data storage. The target for the storage capacity was high-definition digital television (HDTV) technology requiring a capacity of 30 GByte per disk and a data transfer rate of 30 40 Mbit/s. This improvement by a factor of 6 7 with respect to DVD was only achievable, when the laser wavelength and therefore the size of the structures on the disk could be reduced substantially. According to the correlation D 0,6 x / NA (1) selenide. At least 1999 the Japanese chemics manufacturer Nichia was able to offer the first 5mW laser diodes at 405nm based on GaN, developed under the scientific leadership of S. Nakamura.

Competing Formats
the diameter of the laser focus (FWHM) is proportional to the wavelength and inverse proportional to the numerical aperture of the optical system. A violet laser around 400 nm therefore could reduce the focus by 1.6 with respect to DVD (650 nm) increasing the storage capacity by a factor of 1.62 = 2.6. First attempts have already been made towards violet emitting semiconductor materials like gallium-nitride or zincTable 1: Comparison of the disk formats DVD / Blu-ray / HD-DVD

According to (1) besides the laser wavelength a higher numerical aperture is a further method to increase the storage capacity. Here two different competing ways are used: Sony and Philips in their Blu-ray-format decided to move from NA = 0.60 (DVD) to NA = 0.85. This causes the objective lens to be placed very close to the storage layer of the disk requiring the protective cover layer made from polycarbonate (CD 1,2 mm, DVD 0,6 mm) to become much thinner (100 m) [1]. This structure results in a few drawbacks: Surface defects or scratches are much closer to the laser focus and therefore give more distortions in the read out process. The small working distance could make the

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lens touching the surface. The objective lens has to have a larger refraction power and therefore it has to be made from two aspheric surfaces or even two independent lenses. Spherial aberration due to imperfections of the cover layer thickness are more critical. The manufacturing process is quite different from the CD process or DVD process, which Figure 1: Comparison of optical heads and structure size of CD, DVD and Blu-ray disks (courtesy of Philips research). requires new manufacturing machinery. every disk is checked for its physical pro Toshiba und NEC by introducing only a Quality control in disk production perties during the manufacturing (e.g. small change in NA to 0,65 try to keep As an important step in establishing substrate defects, substrate thickness, the disk and drive manufacturing processes as compatible as possible to DVD new formats the company groups define deformation, reflectivity). Therefore this [2]. Drawbacks are: Storage capacity is detailed standards (coloured books), kind of test is called physical test. In 40 % lower (this is said to be which contain the physical properties of the complementary electrical test it is compensated by more effective data the disks, the specifications of the disk checked whether all data can be read compression algorithms). The format is drives as well as the exact data structure. back completely and correctly requiring more sensitive to disk-tilt, i.e. a Only such strict definitions guarantee to fully play a random sample disk on a deviation of the disk surface from that every disk can be read back on every drive. The time effort makes this test to perfect flatness (disk deformation), drive if both are according to the be performed offline only. The measurement parameters of the which can happen during the molding standard. For the disk replicators, which process. Therefore also here an replicate disk with highly efficient electrical test are divided as follows: improvement of the disk manufacturing molding and coating processes the quality RF parameters, i.e. the structure of the assurance is an important and central electrical high frequency signal that is machinery may be required. created by the reflected laser beam at Table 1 shows a comparison of the control task. In quality testing online place of the detector. formats. Figure 1 compares the data tests and offline tests can be distinguished: In an online process for a few seconds Digital errors, i.e. how precisely the structures of CD, DVD and Blu-ray.

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in case of DVD the Pulstec SDP-1000 became reference. Toptica Photonics AG together with the partner AudioDev in Malmoe/Sweden have set themselves the target to develop a reference drive for the next geneFigure 2: Typical eye-pattern of a Blu-ray disk, which is used for the ration optical disks. To measurement of the parameter modulation I8/I8H achieve that target the following prerequisits data can be extracted from the disk. needed to be accomplished: Physical parameters, i.e. the precision The whole optical, mechanical and of the place of the different storage electronical setup of the drive needs be areas on the disk surface. strictly according to the standard. This Jitter-analysis, i.e. fluctuations of the guarantees that deviations in the shape of the data structures. measured signals only derive from im Servo parameters, i.e. the quality of the perfections of the disk and not from signals used to keep the laser in focus the drive. and on track. All components of the drive are manuA typical parameter of group a) is the factured in-house or by reliable supratio I8/I8H. It tells how well the data pliers and are not taken from commerstructures (called pits) provide a cial drives. This guarantees that the negative interference (obstruction) of reference drive can the backreflected light. The superimbe manufactuposed measurement signal (figure 2) red over shows the sinusodial waveforms, that are generated by the pits if the scope trigger is set on the leading edge of each pit (this special picture is called eyepattern): Short pits generate a smaller amplitude modulation than longer pits. The longest pits with a duration of 8 internal clock units define the maximum amplitude modulation I8/I8H, which Figure 3: Reference drive for should be > 0.40 according to the the next generation of standard. This value needs to be measured optical disks: Blu-ray / HD-DVD over the whole disk surface and tells whether the molding process was uniform over the whole disk. a long period based on the same high quality components and that the drive could become part of a worldwide meA Reference Drive asurement standard. for Blu-ray / HD-DVD The drive should be based on a modular Important question is on which type of platform that can be adapted to new drive or player such electrical tests standards quickly and efficiently (Blushould be performed. Already in the early ray, HD-DVD and within these formats days of CD it became clear that the vast the corresponding ROM-, R- and RW differences between the drives of versions). different manufacturers even amongst A good compatibility with a worldwide a drive generation of the same manuestablished disk test system as it is refacturer generate very differing presented by the CATS system of measurement results. But since the CD AudioDev for the DVD sector, allows an community was very dependent on easy approach for the users. comparable measurements it decided to Especially item 1 was very challenging define a certain drive as reference. In for the development team. In commercial case of CD the Philips CDM-4 was chosen, drives the manufacturers try to cut back

CONTACT
TOPTICA Photonics AG, 82152 Martinsried / Germany, Tel. +49 /89 /89 99 69 -0, Fax +49 /89 /89 99 69 -35, www.toptica.com

the numbers and the quality of optical and mechanical components to reduce the manufacturing costs digital errors caused by those lower quality components are then compensated in the software by very effective data correction algorithms. Therefore it is possible to fully read back the information of a reference test disk on a drive that does not fully comply with the standard. In contrary the optical head of the reference drive had to be designed from highest quality components and corresponding alignment possibilities to allow the production of the perfect optical head using interferometric measurements procedures. Detailed calculations done with optics simulation software (Zemax, Diffract) have been essential. Also the disk motor was demanding: Since the reference drive should be used for measurements of the disk excentricity and flatness the motor precision had to be better than 5 m at a rotation speed of 6.000 rpm. A stable and stiff mechanical frame was necessary which even now includes a tilt functionality (tilt of the disk along the disk radius). State-of-the-art FPGA circuits allow to digitally analyze the 66 MHz signals based on flexible programmable logics, the decoding and navigation algorithms being a demanding challenge for the hardware and software engineers. Figure 3 shows the reference drive of Toptica, as it was developed for the Bluray-format. Partner AudioDev presently offers a measurement system based on this drive aiming to R&D laboratories. This should help industry in an early phase to prepare for the violet future of optical data storage.

References
1. www.blu-ray.com 2. www.hddvd.org

Dr. Thomas Weber is President of Toptica Photonics, Martinsried.

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