By the end of this year the first holographic media products will reach the commercial market. Boasting capacities of up to 300 GB, as well as ultra fast access time, these products are poised to revolutionize the IT archive and professional video markets and open the door for future widespread adoption by the consumer market.


In 2000, InPhase Technologies, a Colorado-based company, spun out of Bell Research Labs (birthplace of the transistor, among other things). During the 1990's, Bell Labs scientists and engineers worked hard to develop the fist holographic storage technology. Following seven years of research and several important breakthroughs in media and system technologies at Bell, InPhase, a company dedicated to commercializing those technologies was created. Six more years have passed and InPhase is nearly ready to release its first commercial holographic medium, codenamed HDS5000. This first generation holographic device will support 300 GB and 20 MB/sec transfer rates and use 400-410 nm blue laser.

So how does holographic storage work and what makes it capable of squeezing 515 gigabits (Gb) of data per square inch, as recently demonstrated by InPhase? Storage of data has two aspects: read and write. According to InPhase, recording on holographic media is accomplished by splitting the light from a single laser beam into two beams, a signal beam (which carries the data) and the reference beam. At the point of intersection of these two beams in the recording medium, a hologram is formed. The storage capacity of holographic media is potentially so much larger than conventional media since, unlike conventional media (CD, DVD, etc.

, which utilize only the surface area of the medium (or, at best, another layer), holographic media utilize the full depth of the medium.

Recording holographic data (Credit: InPhase)

InPhase's website explains that the process of encoding data onto the signal beam is accomplished by a device called a spatial light modulator (SLM). The SLM translates the electronic data of 0’s and 1’s into an optical “checkerboard” pattern of light and dark pixels. The data is arranged in an array of approximately one million bits. At the point of intersection of the reference beam and the data-carrying signal beam, the hologram is recorded in the light-sensitive storage medium. A chemical reaction occurs in the medium when the bright elements of the signal beam intersect the reference beam, causing the hologram to be stored. By varying the reference beam angle, wavelength, or media position, many different holograms can be recorded in the same volume of material.

Reading holographic data (Credit: InPhase)

In order to read the holographic data, the reference beam deflects off the hologram, thus reconstructing the stored information. This hologram is then projected onto a detector that reads the data in parallel. According to InPhase, this parallel readout of data affords holography its fast transfer rates.

To learn more about InPhase's future plans, TFOT recently conducted an interview with Mike Lanciloti, the Director of Product Marketing at InPhase.


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