Ten layers, plenty of space

TDK Corp seems to be keen on sending the Blu-ray packing, as the company developed a 10-layer optical disc with capacity of 320GB, where each layer is capable of storing up to 32GB of data. Just for comparison, Blu-ray discs can store up to 25GB per layer.

Apparently, the more layers the medium has, the weaker the signal gets, so expanding optical drives by introducing more layers requires improved transmittance, something that TDK effectively tackled by enhancing the composition of used materials.

Sharp is gearing up to start mass production of high capacity Blu-ray discs capable of storing 100GB of data and churning it out at 8x read speeds.

The extra capacity and performance are achieved by adding additional layers to the discs. The new discs will feature three or four layers for 75GB and 100GB capacities. All this is made possible by recent advances in laser technology and improvements in laser optics. Sharp will use 405nm blue violet lasers for the new media, while conventional DVD drives use red lasers with 600nm wavelengths.