Development of disk media suitable for e-beam data recording using a modulated e-beam from a digitally gated Carbon NanoTube (CNT)emitter. Gated CNT emitters have been previously produced and tested by the Company, and a preliminary design of a Read/Write nanohead exists. The technology will lead to a Hard Disk Drive (HDD) technology with very small nanoscale marks, potentially providing many terabytes of data on a small disk drive. Mark sizes down to 5nm should eventually be possible, providing 100X the data density of magnetic drives. Substantial increases in data rates should also eventually be possible, and the large head-media separation allows the posibility of removable media. Both rewritable and archival media are planned.
Benefit: The CNT e-beam disk drive provides a path forward to much higher drive performance for the HDD industry. The possibility of removable media will have a huge impact and provide multiple-tens of terabytes per removable/archival disk. This enables a quantum leap in mass data storage and the replacement of all tape drives and tape libraries, providing far better performance in a much smaller lower power system. With archival media, data migration will become obsolete, saving many hundreds of millions of dollars per yearin industry and Government.
Keywords: Rewritable and Archival e-beam media, Rewritable and Archival e-beam media, Ultra high HDD performance in compact form factor with e-beam recording, Secondary Electron Emission study for Phase Change media, E-beam Hard Disk Drive media development for CNT sources
