1.

INTRODUCTION
Compact discs were a revolutionary product at its time and
influenced many spheres of human activity. As soon as CDs
appeared in computer industry they immediately became an
undoubted helper both for users and for programmers.

But technologies are progressing. Data are growing faster

and faster. A usual CD is far not enough (640 MBytes). So, there
appeared DVD technology. Of course we are happy with those 17
GBytes that can be kept on one DVD disc, but this is a limiting
point. So we need a completely new method of storing information
on portable data medium. And at last, the company Constellation
3D demonstrates(C-3D) a new format: FMD (Fluorescent
Multilayer Disk), which can soon become a leader.

C-3D's technology implements the concept of the volumetric

storage of information. The fluorescent material emits radiation
when excited by an external light source. The information is then
decoded as modulations of the intensity and color of the emitted
radiation.

2. OPTICAL STORAGE MEDIA USED TODAY

2.1. CD-ROM
The CD-ROM standard was established in 1984. Data bits are
permanently stored on a CD in the form of physically molded pits
in the surface of a plastic data layer that is coated with reflective
aluminum. Smooth areas surrounding pits are called lands.With a
650-MB storage capacity, one CD-ROM disc can store the data
from more than 450 floppy disks. Maximum data transfer rates are
approximately 5 MB/ sec.

2.2. DVD ROM

The DVD ROM standard, introduced in 1995, came about as
the result of a DVD Consortium composed of ten founding
companies viz. Hitachi, Matsushita Electronic.However, DVD-ROM
technology provides seven times the storage capacity of CD discs,
and accomplishes most of this increase by advancing the
technology used for CD systems. These features alone give DVD-
ROM discs four times the storage capacity of CDs.

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 DVD discs can also store two layers of data because they
can have a translucent reflective layer with data on top of a
second opaque reflective layer containing more data.

DVD-ROM discs provide a 4.7-GB storage capacity for single-

sided, single data-layer discs. Single sided, double data-layer discs
increase the capacity to 8.5 GB. Double-sided, single data-layer
discs offer 9.4 GB, and double-sided, double data-layer discs pro-
vide 17 GB of storage capacity.

3. FLUORESCENT MULTILAYER DISK (FMD)

3.1. OVERVIEW
Compact Disc (CD) and Digital Versatile Disc (DVD) use
single and dual metallic layers, respectively, to store data in pits
and grooves, similar to the way grooves store music on vinyl
records.
The limitation of CD and DVD is that the laser cannot
accurately penetrate the solid, reflective layer where data is
stored. In the case of DVD, the laser can penetrate one layer deep
to read the second layer, but after that, the laser becomes
diffused and unable to read the data clearly. FMD-ROM is a totally
clear disc. Instead of reading a single layer, the data is stored on
fluorescent materials in multiple layers, which give off light. The
existence or nonexistence of these materials on a layer tells the
drive whether there is information there or not, which allows the
whole system to handle many more layers. Constellation 3D has
talked about 10 or more layers per disc.
The five-inch disc, which is the same size as CD-ROMs and
DVD-ROMs, can hold up to 140GB of data -- almost 30 times the
capacity of a DVD-ROM disc.

3.2. TECHNOLOGY OVERVIEW

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 Figure 1
The figure 1 shows how an FMD looks like. You can see that a
disc is transparent. But where is a reflective layer like on CD and
DVD discs? The matter is that this technology doesn't need it.
Let's consider FM disc in detail.
In optical discs such as CD, DVD the process of reading is
implemented the following way. A beam of a semi conducting
laser gets on the surface of an informational layer and then
reflects from aluminum (or any other metallic) layer and fixed with
a detector-receiver.
In FMD there is no reflected laser beam: when a laser beam
reaches an informational layer the latter starts radiating. The principle
of operation of FM-discs is based on a phenomenon of
photochromism. When switching on a laser a photochemical reaction
starts what causes fluorescent properties to appear. When reading,
this matter becomes excited again but with a laser of lower power. The
fluorescence is caught up by a photo-receiver and is fixed as a value
"1". Excited photochrome radiates shifting the spectrum of falling light
to the red color side within 30-50 nm what allows to differ laser signal
from the light from the disc.
Figure 2

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 Figure 2 shows how the laser
beam strikes and get deflected
from the surface of a
Fluorescent Multi Layer Disk

Figure 3
Note that this technology allows preventing a problem of
multiple inference between layers since the reflected light is not
coherent; it passes through layers without any difficulties and is easily
defined by a receiver. Let's talk about it a bit in depth.

In usual optical discs (CD/DVD) From Figure 3 it could be seen

with increasing number of that the laser beam of same
informational layers a signal wave length falling on the FMD
gets worse. It's explained by surfaces get deflected in
the fact that these different wave lengths
technologies use a reflected
signal, it means that there is
necessity in mirror surfaces. That's why in DVD technology an external
layer is made to be semitransparent in order to allow a laser to reach
an internal one.

Figure 4

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And a signal while passing an external layer leaves a part of its energy
because of reflecting. Signals reflected from both layers interfere
because of their coherence; it results in losses of useful signal.
Increasing number of layers aggravates an effect of multiple
interference between the layers what makes reading more
complicated. Improving detector-receivers can solve the problem, but
it is possible only in laboratory. In case of fluorescent discs the quality
of the signal gets worse much slower with increasing number of layers.
Look at Figure 5.

Figure 5

According to FMD-ROM developers, even with a hundred layers a

useful signal will be acceptable

Figure 6

As you can see in the Figure 6 a disc consists of several plastic

(polycarbone) layers connected to each other. A layer contains surface
structures (pits), which are filled with fluorescent material. When
reading a laser focuses on a certain layer and excites its fluorescent
elements, and then a photo detector catches this radiation.

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 Figure 7

The developers state that with a blue laser (480 nm) it's possible
to increase record density up to tens Terabyte on one FM disc.
Another interesting feature is parallel reading, which will be
dealt later. If we record a sequence of bits not along a track but deep
into layers we can increase speed of data access. That's why such disc
is called "3-dimensional".
Here is a list of advantages of FMD:

• Multilayer disc is transparent and homogeneous

• Small loss of useful signal while passing through several layers

• Fluorescence of a separate element easily passes through disc

layers

• Less sensitivity (than of CD/DVD) to different imperfections of

reading devices. Fluorescent technology doesn't require special
manufacturing conditions

• Reflective fluorescent light from any layer is not coherent, it

prevents a problem of multiple interferences

• FMD-technology is compatible with CD and DVD formats

supporting the same data distribution system on each layer.

4. FM DISC PRODUCTION
Many stages of the production of FM Disks are put on the basis
of CD and DVD manufacture. However, some alterations are to be
made here. In particular, they concern form of surface structures and
methods of filling with fluorescent material. Besides, there is no

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technology of sputtering of aluminum layer what reduces the number
of steps.

Mastering process is very similar to that of CD/DVD. A few words

regarding the process of manufacturing CD discs.

As a storage device they use a glass plate covered with a thin

photo resistive layer. A laser beam, intensity of which is modulated
with digital information, gets into photo resist causing markings that
correspond to bits of digital code. After that the photo resist is
developed and covered with a metallic layer. This Master-copy after
recording contains digital information in the form of pits. Then they
make an exact negative copy by a galvanic way which later serves as
a press-matrix. This negative can already be used for CD manufacture.
But in order to save this single matrix they produce several
intermediate copies (negative), and then several press matrix (the
same way), which serve for stamping CDs. After recording of data on
an informational surface in vacuum a thin layer of aluminum is
sputtered. Outside, the metallic layer is lacquered in order to prevent
mechanical damage.

In FMD technology an exact copy of pit is of vital importance

since later it's filled with fluorescent material. That's why these two
technologies differ. Here, a master-copy is a nickel matrix (a stamp). It
is a negative copy, like in CD-technology. A FM disc consists of several
layers and that's why the process contains several steps: informational
layers are produced separately and then they are combined together.

4.1. TECHNOLOGICAL PROCESS

The technological process of FMD manufacture is divided into two.

They are :
 Hot Stamping
 Photo Polymerization

4.1.1. HOT STAMPING

In this method each layer is reached by pressing of polycarbon

layer with two stamps (Master-copies) at high temperature. So we
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receive one layer with two informational sides. Then the pits are filled
with fluorescent material. And when it becomes hard the informational
layers are pressed.
In Figure 8 you can see a structure of a 7-layer disc produced
according to the described method.

Figure 8

4.1.2. PHOTO POLYMERIZATION

The second method uses a process of photo polymerization
when a multiple disc is reached by stacking of discs one after another,
which is made from thin informational layers.

Manufacture of one informational layer lies in manufacture of

plastic film with definite optical characteristics. The film is 25 to 30
micron in width. The film, which will get information, soon is either
stamped or cut out with a laser.
After that the film is installed on an external surface of a nickel
matrix that carries a negative copy of produced informational layer.
While rotating, photopolymer matter is evenly brought in the space
between stamp surface and plastic film.

Later, when the photopolymer matter becomes hard the film

gets detached from the stamp surface. The base plate now contains
pits of definite geometry. A pit's geometry is better in terms of quality
than that received when manufacturing matrices for CD or DVD since
those technologies use a process of stamping of pits. When a layer
with the required position of pits is ready, they are filled with
fluorescent material (it covers evenly the whole informational side).

After that the surface is processed chemically in order to reach

necessary contrast of pits and flats. Then, in order to check the copy
for different defects, photo elements get excited and the whole picture

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is analyzed with the help of CCD cameras. After that the layers are
"stuck" to the base plate 0.6 mm in width. And all this is covered with
a protective layer, which can be used for graphics decoration. In order
to prevent a physical contact with informational layers on the edge of
the disc this area is filled as well with polymeric material, like in CD or
DVD technologies.

5. RECORDING ON FMD-ROM
We still haven't seen a prototype of record device but the
company says that it is under developing now. There used a
technology WORM (Write Once Read Many). A series of rewritable
discs will be called FMD WORM. A technology of manufacturing these
discs will be the same as for FMD ROM except the fact that they will
use another fluorescent material that will be able to change the state
under the influence of a laser.
And when recording you should follow two rules:

 Sufficient power of a laser in order to provide an element with

fluorescent properties
 Threshold power of laser should be used for recording (in order
to change fluorescent properties of the material) and for reading must
be used less power.
o Besides, it's very important to choose a recording method.
The FMD developers offer two record principles.
• The first principle (thermal) implies usage of material that
possesses fluorescent properties from the beginning (logical one). And
when recording those segments, which are thermally acted upon with
a laser, lose these properties (logical zero).
• The second principle (chemical) means usage of a material that
doesn't possess fluorescent properties form the beginning. When
acting upon with a laser a photochemical reaction starts, and the
material gets fluorescent properties. There, a low-power laser is
enough, or even a usual LED. With the latter (LED matrix) there is
possible a simultaneous record of the whole array of information.

Record devices don't differ much from read ones. The only
difference lies in a bit different laser form allowing both reading and
writing. Besides, we should note that it's possible to combine WORM
and ROM on one storage device! For example, imagine a 20-layer disc
with 10 layers already recorded and 10 left for a user. The company C-
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3d also plans to release rewritable FM. The record principle is
practically the same as in CD-RW technology except for the fact that
there it isn't necessary to control reflective ability of a layer - there is
enough to convert fluorescent material from one state (absence of
fluorescence) into the other (presence of fluorescence). For example,
the whole layer of a FM disc will be covered with a fluorescent material
which initially doesn't possess fluorescent properties (logical zero) and
when recording a logical one a low-power laser excites a
photochemical reaction in the required place. Erasure will be done
with the help of a more powerful laser.

An advantage of this technology is that the fluorescent material

is much more resistant to phase transformations than that used in CD-
RW discs that's why you can rewrite it much more times.

6. FMD READ DEVICES

You can see a prototype of an FMD Read Device in figure 9 . The

developers say that the drives intended for FM discs will easily
understand CD and DVD format. In structure the drives are similar to
CD/DVD ones for example in such parameters as laser, optics, servo
drive, tracking and focusing system, different controllers. There
appear only systems that can catch and discern fluorescence, and a
service in choosing an informational layer.

Figure 9

6.1. PARALLEL READING

As we have already mentioned this technology allows parallel
reading; it means that a sequence of bits is recorded not along a track
but deep into layers. That's why we receive three types of data
reading: successive, successive-parallel and parallel.

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A little about what in fact parallel reading- Reading process is carried
out with the help of a solar cell (an array of CDD cameras). This device
can read low-power fluorescence of several tens MHz. And the reading
speed reaches 1 Gigabit/s. We should notice that mechanical speed of
the drive is 450 times lower than that of DVD.Figure 10 and figure11
clearly demonstrates the principles of parallel reading.

Figure 10 Figure 11
12x enlargement of Signals received from
FMD segment received each element of CDD
with CDD cameras array

7. SOME OF THE TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANTAGES

7.1. INCREASED DISC CAPACITY

DVD data density (4.7 GB) on each layer of data is up to 100
layers. Initially, the FMD disc will hold anywhere from 25 - 140 GB of
data depending on market need. Eventually a terabyte of data on a
single disc will be achievable.

7.2. QUICK PARALLEL ACCESS AND RETRIEVAL OF

INFORMATION
Reading from several layers at a time and multiple tracks at a
time - nearly impossible using the reflective technology of a CD/DVD -
is easily achieved in FMD. This will allow for retrieval speeds of up to 1
gigabit/second.

7.3. MEDIA TOLERANCES

By using incoherent light to read data the FMD media will have
far fewer restrictions in temperature range, vibration and air-cleanness
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during manufacturing. And will provide a considerably more robust
data carrier than existing CD and DVD’s.

7.4. USAGE FLEXIBILITY

FMD presents a wide variety of potential media sizes and types (read
only, writeable and rewritable) for a broad range of applications

8. ABOUT THE COMPANY C3D & THEIR PRODUCT

The company C3D was founded in 1995. The company is aimed

at developing progressive technologies in the field of data storage and
in production in the sphere of consumption and education.
The first generation of disc productions from Constellation 3D
will be a family of 120 mm multilayer FM-discs with capacity up to 140
GBytes and with read speed up to 1 GBytes/s. It's interesting to
compare them with DVD that keep up to 17.4 GBytes. New discs will
be capable for example to keep up to 20 hours of compressed movies
in HDTV format

9. FMD FOR MAC USERS

For the MacUser Constellation 3D has given the first public
demonstrations of its high-capacity optical storage technology. The
system, which will allow DVD-sized media to store up to 100Gb of
data, is expected to be available as products by the middle of next
year.

10. POTENTIAL FOR FURTHER GROWTH

The technology is young and will grow and evolve, providing a

clear road map for the future of data storage.

The FMD/C technology is presently protected by over 80

Japanese, European, and US patents, approved and/or pending, dozens
of priority establishing disclosures, and the exceptional know-how of
an unprecedented group of physicists cooperating across the world.

11. COMPARISON BETWEEN CD DVD AND FMD

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 Parameter CD DVD FMD
Disc diameter, mm 120 120 130
Capacity, GBytes 0,64 17,4 50,8
2 (each
Number of layers 1 12
side)
Distance between layers, micron - 40 25¦5
Total width of informational layers,
0,11 2 275
micron
Format CD DVD Modified DVD
Distance between tracks, micron 1,6 0,74 0,8

Table 1

12. APPLICATION

The following table represents an approximate amount of storage

space required by latest applications and technologies

No. NEW APPLICATIONS REQUIRED CAPACITY

1 Digital cinema, High Definition TV 100GB

2 Mobile computing 5GB

3 Digital Cameras 5GB

4 PDAs 1GB

5 Digital Video Recorders 40GB

6 G3 Mobile Phones 0.5GB

Table 2

FMD/FMC will be able to provide this much amount of storage capacity.

13. CONCLUSION

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 Man’s need for additional storage space is something that is
ever increasing. Hence no solution or data storage media is expected
to achieve the status of a complete storage solution for long periods of
time especially due to rapid developments taking place in many
storage related fields. But for now the FMD, which can provide us with
a staggering 140 GB of storage space seems to be an enticing solution
for the storage-hungry masses.

14. REFERENCES
1. www.c3d.com
2. www.digit-life.com
3. www.hotwired.lycos.com/home/digital
4. www.pctechguide.com
5. www.pc.ibm.com/us/infobrf/cdtech.html
6. www.cds.com/process.htm

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