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Prepared for TeraByte Tape
With this proprietary technology Imation is able to achieve the surface smoothness and uniformity required for the increased bit and track density needed to store multiple terabytes on a single cartridge. The cartridges utilizing Tera Ångstrom technology will be in capacities of 400 gigabytes and higher; Imation expects to deliver multi-terabyte cartridges within the decade.
One terabyte is the equivalent of one million megabytes of data, or 16 days of continuously running DVD movies. The drive towards the development of terabyte-capacity tape cartridges is in response to the growing demand for storage-intensive applications, such as data backup, data mining and archiving, for disciplines ranging from geophysics and financial to broadcast and government.
The Imation Tera Ångstrom Technology advantage:
- Capacity: Increased capacity through bit and track density
- Performance: Higher SNR and consistent signal strength ensures efficient processing time
- Reliability: Is it an 0 or a 1? Surface uniformity (smoothness) and higher SNR allows for accurate data reading
- Quality: State-of-the-art quality practices incorporated throughout the manufacturing facility
Manufacturing process
Imation Tera Ångstrom technology is based on three proprietary
techniques used in the manufacturing process that make possible this
new level of data density.
- Impingement process
High-pressure
(>10,000 psi) impingement jets force particles against each other,
blasting apart the clusters of magnetic particles and separating them
into nanometer-size elements which enables magnetic layer uniformity
— smaller particle size and more uniform distribution.
- Quiescent drying process
A
delicate drying environment that utilizes low air velocity and magnetic
coils for extremely precise particle orientation — eliminating
coating disturbances and orienting the particles precisely to allow
for maximum bit density and storage capacity.
- In-line calendering process
A
series of rollers with an ultra-smooth finish that compress the tape
surface to achieve surface smoothness measured in Ångstrom units.
(An Ångstrom is equal to one tenth of a nanometer or a metric
unit of length equal to one 10-billionth of a meter. One sheet of
paper is approximately one million Ångstroms thick.) This surface
smoothness and uniformity allows for increased bit and track density
to deliver higher capacity cartridges.
Play
the Flash animation"Imation's formulation and coating process incorporates nanometer
size needle-shaped magnetic particles uniformly oriented and processed
through chrome plated rollers to achieve Ångstrom level surface
smoothness," Rick Weiss -vice president of research and development,
Imation Corp.- said.
"This proprietary technology makes it possible to write more
data on the surface area of the metal particulate tape media, at the
level needed to reach one terabyte and beyond cartridge storage capacities."
Metal particulate (MP) is the coating technology found in some of the most widely used and rapidly growing data storage tape formats today. Future generations of MP media will provide storage capacities of one terabyte per cartridge and beyond needed to meet the demanding requirements of large scale data storage operations for backup and restore applications, nearline and offline storage, disaster recovery, business continuity planning and data archiving and retrieval.
At its research and development facilities, located in Oakdale, Minn., Imation continues to advance the development of MP media capacity, performance, and pilot production designs that are implemented throughout the company’s manufacturing sites. Today, Imation continues to be the leader of magnetic technology, offering the broadest portfolio of removable data storage products across all market segments, from computers, consumer electronics and small businesses to products for servers, storage networks and enterprise systems.
Download
the Tera Ångstrom White paper (PDF) — 378kB