Whereas cloud storage stays essentially the most seen portion of shopper storage throughout the tech ecosystem, the bit that requires essentially the most capability stays hidden. Archiving and long run knowledge storage by hyperscalers and repair suppliers have gathered steam over the previous decade as extra of our lives – particularly over the COVID lockdown – came about on-line. 

Optical storage (suppose DVD and Blu-ray) has been within the shadows as tape, unique media (like silica or DNA) and arduous disk drives vie for supremacy within the hotly contested space of archiving. Nonetheless, one newcomer, Folio Photonics, goals to ship the products sooner than everybody by taking a brand new spin on current optical know-how.

The beginning-up firm, spun-off from the Middle for Layered Polymeric Programs, a Nationwide Science Basis funded Science and Expertise Middle is a newcomer in a crowded market and we’ve sat down (just about) with its CEO, Steve Santamaria to debate the way forward for this thrilling know-how.

I can hint the primary glimpse of a 1TB optical disc again to 2007. Why did it take so lengthy to get a commercially viable product?

It seems, commercially manufacturing of 1TB discs utilizing the standard spin coating methodology is troublesome to do whereas sustaining yields and margins.  Folio’s breakthrough is as a lot in regards to the co-extruded movie manufacturing course of as it’s about superior materials science.  The manufacturing course of permits industrial scale and reasonably priced prices.  This permits Folio to ship excessive optical capability at a fraction of typical optical storage prices.

Your press launch mentions $5 per TB whereas your web site mentions $Three per TB, which one is true?

Each are proper.  This can be a market/enterprise choice.  Folio intends to have the bottom $/TB of any present storage media after we ship the primary product, however we acknowledge that the info archive storage is a commodity and can handle our worth and roadmap accordingly to ship the very best worth to our prospects and to our buyers.

How is your optical disk totally different from a conventional blu-ray one? What is the secret sauce?

Multi-layer and low-cost manufacturing course of.  Conventional Bluray discs are three or 4 layers and have been for 20 years (the Archival disc achieves 6 layers by having 3-layers on either side).  Our first product can be eight layers per aspect, that means we can have a 16 layer double sided disc.  That’s ~ 2.7X the capability of present Bluray with out advances in areal density (extra knowledge per layer).  The key sauce is Materials Science + extruded film-based manufacturing.

Many earlier than you could have tried the WORM route however didn’t make any influence (e.g Pinnacle Micro and so on). What makes your strategy totally different and the way did you handle to beat giants like Panasonic or Sony?

We imagine the client’s wants are evolving.  A lot of knowledge being archived are “Objects” and by definition Object knowledge must be immutable.  WORM is the easiest way to attain knowledge immutability.

Your know-how permits using each cartridges or discs. What can be the use circumstances for both (maybe prosumer vs petabyte-size archives)?

There are a selection of library firms that supply robotics in addition to a sturdy SW layer that we’re working with.  Cartridge vs disc carousel, vs disc tray can be chosen to service the assorted market use circumstances and decided by the library distributors.

What kind of efficiency are we speaking about? Entry time, switch price, write charges and so on?

At the moment, we’re not disclosing efficiency metrics, however are snug pointing to the SONY ODA metrics as comparable. Entry time specifically can be decided by the library distributors and the ratio of drives to discs they commercialize.

What is the horizon Three goal? 10TB disc and 100TB cartridges by 2030? Would value per TB keep the identical or go down?

10TB discs are the goal, however can be decided by the market.  Folio’s manufacturing course of permits us a lot better management of prices and we decide to ship the very best worth to our prospects and to our buyers.

How a lot will the writers/readers value and what kind of enchancment would you see on that aspect? A number of studying/writing heads? Twin aspect ones?

Nonetheless too early to debate the pricing of our drives besides that we are going to be competitively positioned someplace between at present’s Blu Ray drives and LTO Tape drives.

Why name the corporate Folio Photonics? What is the photonics facet of it?

The identify Folio Photonics got here from our founder, Dr. Ken Singer. “Folio” refers to layering sheets of paper (right into a e-book format in lots of circumstances); therefore it’s used to explain the layered movie we manufacture. Subsequent, “Photonics” is the bodily science and utility of sunshine (photon) era, detection, and manipulation. By combining our improvements in materials science, manufacturing, and optics, we’re ready to make use of our layered movie along side photonics for this high-tech utility.

Your web site mentions 16+ layers. Does that imply that presumably extra layers will come?

Sure, we venture to 32+ layers by 2030 in our know-how roadmap. With that being mentioned, our manufacturing strategy of co-extrusion has demonstrated the aptitude to attain considerably greater than 32 layers.  Whereas we goal to create 32 layer movies, the disc can be double-sided. This may permit for 32 layers on either side. 167GB x 64 Layers is upwards of 10.7TB. That’s how we venture as much as 10TB.

What areal density will the primary gen discs use? What kind of areal density enchancment do you count on to attain additional down the road?

We’re projecting that our first era discs can be within the vary of ordinary optical areal density/layer at present. Which is within the vary of 25-33GB/Layer relying on the media examined. Optical applied sciences have proven the aptitude to attain upwards of 88-167GB/layer by decreasing spot dimension, making marks nearer collectively, and advancing learn/write optics. We imagine this to be achievable sooner or later as we progress down our know-how roadmap.