Bayer develops polymers for next-generation optical media.

Bayer MaterialScience, Pittsburgh, has teamed up with a Colorado start-up company to develop polymers for holographic storage disks. Bayer has purchased a $5-million stake in InPhase Technologies Inc., Longmont, Colo. InPhase expects to launch the industry's first holographic disk with a capacity of 300 GB by the end of 2006. These discs offer 50 times the storage capacity of a DVD or 460 times that of a CD, but they are the same size as the old 5.25-in. floppy disks. The first applications will be write-once discs for professional archiving, to be followed by rewritable discs for the mass market, such as handheld entertainment devices. Both companies said further development will enable the production of disks with a capacity of up to 1.6 terabytes (1600 GB).

Unlike DVDs, where data is either laser-written or embossed on the surface, holography makes use of the entire volume of the storage material. InPhase is developing a three-layer disc with an active matrix layer that stores the data sandwiched by two protective plastic layers. For the matrix layer, Bayer is developing a proprietary liquid thermoset that would be injected between the protective layers. Embedded in the matrix will be a photopolymer, also being developed by Bayer.

The two injection molded protective layers will be commercially available materials. InPhase's prototypes use amorphous polyolefins but polycarbonate is also being considered. The 3.5-mm-thick holographic disc--thicker than today's CD or DVD--will consist of a 1.5-mm recording layer and two 1-mm outer layers.

Bayer: [phone]/PT Direct 468PT * InPhase: [phone]/www/inphase-technologies.com