Nanomechanical Data Storage Device

Given the rapidly increasing data volumes that are downloaded onto mobile devices such as cell phones and PDAs, there is a growing demand for suitable storage media with more capacity. At CeBIT (Hanover, Germany), IBM showed for the first time the prototype of the MEMS assembly of a nanomechanical storage system known internally as the "millipede" project. Using revolutionary nanotechnology, scientists at the IBM Zurich Research Laboratory, Switzerland, have made it to the millionths of a millimeter range, achieving data storage densities of more than one terabit (1000 gigabit) per square inch, equivalent to storing the content of 25 DVDs on an area the size of a postage stamp.

Thousands of extremely fine tips "write" tiny pits representing individual bits into a thin film of highly specific polymer. The principle is comparable with the old punch cards, but now with structural dimensions in the nanometer scale, and the ability to erase data and rewrite the medium.

The high storage density of more than a terabit was achieved by using individual silicon tips to create pits approximately 10 nm in diameter. Experimental chips have been designed comprising more than 4,000 of these tips arrayed in a small 6.4 mm x 6.4 mm². These dimensions make it possible to pack an entire high-capacity storage system into the SD flash memory format package.

Technical product feasibility in terms of storage density, performance, and reliability was demonstrated in recent experiments using the prototype on display. While current storage technologies are gradually approaching fundamental limits, the nanomechanical approach has enormous development potential: storage densities that correspond to the size of molecular structures may even be possible. Moreover, the nanomechanical data medium has been optimized to use a minimum amount of energy. Thus, it is suited for use in mobile devices such as digital cameras, cell phones, and USB sticks. Other possible applications include lithography on the nanometer scale, as well as atomic and molecular manipulation.

Find out more at: www.zurich.ibm.com