Optical Disc Corp. (ODC) announced last month at REPLItech the successful mastering of 35 GB on a single-side, single-layer disc, utilizing a standard 351 nanometer wavelength UV laser. This was accomplished with ODC's DRAW (Direct-Read-After-Write) mastering technology and the company's new High Resolution Dye Polymer recording medium. Until now, industry engineers have assumed that an electron beam recorder (EBR) must be used to record the higher densities needed for future generation formats. ODC's new High Resolution Dye Polymer has now proven that to be a premature assumption. As the photoresist medium reaches its limits at higher densities with standard lasers, it may be a fair assumption to say you would need an electron beam recorder to do the job.

But, High Resolution Dye Polymer is just scratching the surface of where its limits may be. "What amazes us the most about High Resolution Dye Polymer is that the smaller the pits are, the better it works," states ODC president Richard Wilkinson. The technological breakthrough ODC has accomplished with High Resolution Dye Polymer is that the pit is cut up to 40 percent smaller than the spot size of the laser it is cut with.

"We hit 35GB on our first shot recording at 351 nm/0.90 NA at 265 nm track pitch and still have a lot of options left for higher densities, including even smaller wavelength lasers. We could go to the smaller wavelength lasers and hit 50GB but what good would that do since you would need a player that could read at that density," states Wilkinson. "By demonstrating a mastering capability of densities at 35GB, we have shown that we have a production-worthy mastering solution for the next generation format using blue diode players and beyond.

@Caption:Atomic Force Microscope images of stampers at 4.7 GB (standard dye polymer) and 35 GB (high-resolution dye polymer)