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Magnetic Media for Future Ultra-High-Density Information Storage

Objective

The objective of MAG-UHD was to develop a high-resolution medium offering an increase in volume storage density up to a factor of 4 and a reduced error rate with respect to the present state of the art.
The objective of this project is to develop a high resolution medium which offers an increase in volume storage density up to a factor of 4 and a reduced error rate with respect to the present state of the art. Manufacturing steps and components will continue to be improved to achieve: tape substrates with lower thickness and improved quality with regard to dimensional stability, adhesion properties, surface smoothness and abrasivity (reduction of head wear); and magnetic coatings with lower particle sizes and higher homogeneity as well as an outstanding level of internal cleanliness.
The introduction of completely new processing technologies (like surface treatments) and the use of modern physical analytical methods (like surface spectroscopy) are necessary steps for successful work and are extensively used. Then the resulting tape should make it possible to record high definition television (HDTV) video information with a transmission rate of about 100 Mbit s{-1} and to increase volume storage density by about 2 orders of magnitude compared with present media, based on conventional oxide pigments.
The consortium has succeeded in developing a metal particle (MP) tape which ranks among the very best products in the field. This will be commercialized in 1992 for V8 and in 1993 for Hi8 applications. This success is largely due to the extremely homogeneous tape coating achieved as a result of a newly optimized process for dispersing the magnetic particles. Other key factors were the application of a special calendering process and the development of an ultraclean low roughness base film in order to achieve an unusually smooth surface and a very low number of dropouts.
Manufacturing steps and components have been improved to achieve:

- tape substrates with lower thickness and improved quality with regard to dimensional stability, adhesion properties, surface smoothness and abrasivity (reduction of head-wear)
- magnetic coatings with lower particle sizes and higher homogeneity as well as an outstanding level of internal cleanliness.

Magnetic tapes, especially for helical scan recording, are the information media offering the highest volume storage density, even when compared with optical discs. According to the present state of the art (ie, streamers), the maximum volume storage density of these media is around 2E7 fc/mm{3}. This density is, for the time being, suitable for digital home audio and for the corresponding data storage system (R-DAT).

Nevertheless, the emergence of new demands from the computer industry (for back-up) and from the consumer market (HDTV recorders, for instance) requires tremendous increase in the volume storage density of tape media. The use of tape-recorders, coupled with buffer memories to reduce the inconvenience of long access time, remains the best way to achieve very high rates of transfer of huge amounts of data. This new market requirement may be fulfilled by optical technologies, but magnetic tape represents the quickest answer to market demands, provided that some drawbacks of the present technology can be overcome.

The introduction of completely new processing technologies (such as surface treatments) and the use of modern physical analytical methods (such as surface spectroscopy) are necessary steps for successful work and are extensively used. Then the resulting tape should make it possible to:

- record HDTV video information with a transmission rate of about 100 Mbit/s
- increase volume storage density by about two orders of magnitude compared with present media, based on conventional oxide pigments.

Topic(s)

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Call for proposal

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Funding Scheme

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Coordinator

BASF Magnetics GmbH
EU contribution
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Address
Kistlerhofstraße 70
81379 München
Germany

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Total cost
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Participants (8)