NSF Award
9960408
This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project from Reveo, Inc. involves developing the enabling technology for achieving the nearly unbounded digital storage capacity demands of the 21st Century--a problem that will plague all computer users from individuals to businesses to the government. Rewritable optical storage media have many advantages over magnetic media. Despite the advantages, such as greater density, capacity, and stability, rewritable optical storage media have not have not caught on because of high cost and slow, bulky read/write technologies. A paradigm shift to three-dimensional (3D) optical storage media would allow for phenomenal storage density. Reveo, Inc. has invented a variable-focal-length liquid crystal microlens array that could function as the enabling technology for a fast, simple, inexpensive read/write device for 3D optical media. Coupled with active-matrix LCD technology, Reveo's microlens array could revolutionize digital storage, supplanting magnetic media with ultra-high-density 3D optical media. This Phase I project is a feasibility study in which Reveo firm will compare three designs of LC microlenses and fabricate a prototype microlens of the optimal structure. In Phase II, the firm will fabricate the full array and develop a read/write device for 3D optical media, paving the way for full commercialization in Phase III.<br/>In order to set the magnitude of the problem in perspective, consider that over 90 million computers were sold worldwide in 1998 alone, and that figure is increasing rapidly. Reveo proffers a variable microlens technology that will enable a commercially and technically viable 3D optical storage device It is difficult to overestimate how keenly computer users will demand prodgious storage capacity in the future. The commercial potential of a 3D optical storage device that holds almost 1 Tbyte/cm3 is vast in that it offers a viable long-term solution to multitudinous computers users.<br/>.
