FLUROSCENT MULTILAYER

DISC

BY
SIDDHARTH
SHANBHAG
 RECAP:
• What is FMD?

• Why FMD?

• Operating Principles.

• Technological Process.
What is FMD?
Fluorescent Multilayer disc is an
optical disc that uses fluorescent rather
than reflective material to store data. It
is an three dimensional storage disc
developed by Constellation 3D.
Why FMD?
• Increased Disc capacity.
•Quick parallel access and retrieval
information.
•Media tolerances.
 Operating Principle:
• The principle operation of FMD is based on a
phenomenon of photochromism.

• The laser beam when focused on the information

material the material starts radiating than reflecting.

• The laser beam causes the photochrome material

to posses the fluorescent properties .

• The fluorescence is caught up by a device called

photo receiver.
• The usage of photochrome material increases the
number of information layers do not make the signal
worse which is not in case of other optical discs.

• The developers state that with blue laser(480nm) it is

possible to increase capacity to Terabytes on the disc.

• This technology prevents the problem of interference

since we are using photochrome material which posses
the fluorescent properties.
 Technological Process:
There are two technological process in
manufacturing
of FMD:
• Hot Stamping.
• Photo Polymerization.
HOT STAMPING:
The layer is pressed with polycarbonate
and stamped
twice with hot temperature. This forms two
information
layer with pits on each side and filled with
fluorescent
material.
PHOTO POLYMERIZATION:
• The information layer generated is made of thin
plastic film of 25-30micron in width.
• The film is installed on a nickel matrix that carries
the negative copy of information layers.
• The photo polymer material is evenly brought in
space b/w stamp surface and film, which generates
pits after the polymer material is detached from
stamp surface.
• The pits generated is filled with fluorescent material
and chemically processed.
• After the layers are filled with fluorescent material
and attached to the base plate, it is covered with a
protective layer which can be used for graphics
decoration.
• This process is carried out in order to prevent a
physical contact with information layer on the edge
of the disc this is filled with polymeric material.
• This process is mainly based on light and polymer
material.
 FMD ARCHITECTURE:
• Since the technology not based on the
reflection,
the multiple layers can be read on the
same time.
 LAYER DESCRIPTION:
• The disc consists of several polycarbonate layers
connected to each other viz: Information layer,
Protective layer and Inter Layer.
• A layer contains pits which are filled with FM,
laser focuses on certain layer and excites the
fluorescent
elements and the radiation is caught by Photo detector.
Comparison of Disc Layers:
 Why Fluorescence not
Reflective material?

• No interference.

• Solves signal degradation.

• Increase in storage capacity.

 Advantages of FMD:
• Prevents problem of interference since it
uses an
incoherent fluorescent light.
• Compatible with CD and DVD formats with
more
storage area and faster access.
• Fluorescent technology do not require
special
manufacturing conditions.
• Durability.
 CD vs DVD vs FMD:
PARAMETERS CD DVD FMD

1. Disc 120mm 120mm 120mm

diameter
2. Capacity 750MB 4GB 50GB+
3. Wavelength 780nm 650nm 480-
530nm
4. Distance b/w 1.6micron 0.85micron 0.80micro
tracks n
5.No.of layers 1 2 12
 Applications:
• Data warehouses.
• E-commerce related data mining.
• HDTV.
• Mobile phones and PDA.
• PVR
 FMD HARDWARE:

FMD drive FMD Player

FMC PDA FMC/D laptop

 FMD READ DEVICE:
• The interesting feature of the FMD is parallel
reading.
• The sequence of bits is recorded not along a track
but deep into layers in parallel reading.
• Reading process is carried out with the help of a
solar cell.
• This device can read low-power fluorescence of
up to ten MHz.
• The below diagram shows the
parallel reading
device.
• The reading speed reaches 1
Gigabit/s.
 ABOUT THE COMPANY
• Company C-3D was founded in 1995.
• First FMD production -120mm in diameter and
140GB memory with speed of 1GB/s.
• The company has opened offices in New York
California, Florida.
• The company has around 60 patents.
• The C-3D declared bankruptcy and the company
was acquired by D Data Inc.
 CHRONOLOGY:
• 1999 first published in September.
• 2001 first license given to Sony.
• 2002 august C3D disappeared.
• 2003 D Data Inc acquired the patents of C3D
and developed HD DMD - Digital Multilayer Disk.
KEY PEOPLE OF C3D:
• Chairman: Itzhak Yaakov
• President & CEO: Eugene Levich
• Interim Chief Operating Officer: Michael Goldberg
• General Manager of Products: Dr. Ingolf Sander
 Disadvantage:
• Initial cost of the fluorescent material
is more
than reflective material that is used in
CD,DVD.

• This makes the product costlier than

other
storage devices.
 Conclusion:
The rapid technological development that is taking
place in storage devices has also made the man think
about the needs and the requirements for the storage
devices.
But for now the FMD, which can provide us with
gigabytes(GB) of storage space compared to CD and
DVD seems to be an enticing solution for the storage
masses.
 References:
• www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki.
• www.ixbtlabs.com/articles .
• www.seminartopic.org.
• www.ebook-search-
engine.com/fluroscent-multilayer-
disc.