Integrating nanotechnology into a working storage device

The thermomechanical scanning-probe-based data storage concept, internally known as the ''millipede'' project, combines ultrahigh density, small form factor, and high data rates. Ultrahigh storage densities of more than 1 Tb/in^2 can be achieved by using local-probe techniques to write, read back, and erase data in very thin polymer films. In this paper special focus is given to the crucial role of the polymer storage medium in thermomechanical probe storage systems. High data rates are achieved by parallel operation of large 2D arrays with thousands micro/nanomechanical cantilevers/tips that can be batch-fabricated by silicon surface-micromachining techniques. The very high precision required to navigate the probe tips over the storage medium is achieved by MEMS-based x/y actuators that position the large arrays of probe tips for parallel write/read/erase operations. The inherent parallelism, the ultrahigh areal densities and the small form factor may open up new perspectives and opportunities for application in areas beyond those envisaged today.

[1]  Ute Drechsler,et al.  The "Millipede"-More than thousand tips for future AFM storage , 2000, IBM J. Res. Dev..

[2]  E. Eleftheriou,et al.  Demonstration of thermomechanical recording at 641 Gbit/in/sup 2/ , 2004, IEEE Transactions on Magnetics.

[3]  Bharat Bhushan,et al.  Applied Scanning Probe Methods Xi , 2006 .

[4]  W. Häberle,et al.  The "millipede" - nanotechnology entering data storage , 2002 .

[5]  J. Ferry.  Viscoelastic properties of polymers , 1961 .

[6]  R. Pease,et al.  Patterned media: a viable route to 50 Gbit/in/sup 2/ and up for magnetic recording? , 1997 .

[7]  Heinrich Rohrer,et al.  In Touch with Atoms , 1999 .

[8]  S. Naberhuis.  Probe-based recording technology , 2002 .

[9]  Bharat Bhushan.  Springer Handbook of Nanotechnology , 2007 .

[10]  D. Rugar,et al.  Thermomechanical writing with an atomic force microscope tip , 1992 .

[11]  Ute Drechsler,et al.  A Nanotechnology-based Approach to Data Storage , 2003, VLDB.

[12]  H. B. Pogge,et al.  Wafer-scale microdevice transfer/interconnect: from a new integration method to its application in an afm-based data-storage system , 2003, TRANSDUCERS '03. 12th International Conference on Solid-State Sensors, Actuators and Microsystems. Digest of Technical Papers (Cat. No.03TH8664).

[13]  F. Iwata,et al.  Local elasticity imaging of nano bundle structure of polycarbonate surface using atomic force microscopy , 2000 .

[14]  Jacobus Josephus Maria Ruigrok,et al.  Disk recording beyond 100 Gb/in.2 : hybrid recording? (invited) , 2000 .

[15]  Bernd Gotsmann,et al.  Thermally activated nanowear modes of a polymer surface induced by a heated tip. , 2004, Langmuir : the ACS journal of surfaces and colloids.

[16]  W. Gladfelter,et al.  Scan-Induced Patterning and the Glass Transition in Polymer Films: Temperature and Rate Dependence of Plastic Deformation at the Nanometer Length Scale , 2003 .

[17]  Leon Abelmann,et al.  Single-chip computers with microelectromechanical systems-based magnetic memory (invited) , 2000 .

[18]  H. Rothuizen,et al.  "Millipede": a MEMS-based scanning-probe data-storage system , 2002, Digest of the Asia-Pacific Magnetic Recording Conference.

[19]  Haralampos Pozidis,et al.  A servomechanism for a micro-electro-mechanical-system-based scanning-probe data storage device , 2004 .