© Thomson confidential

Optical Storage beyond BD

Brussels, June 3, 2008

Deutsche Thomson OHGThomson Technology - Corporate Research VillingenVillingen Optical Storage

June 3, 20082 © Thomson confidential

Outline

• 3rd Gen Optical Disc - Blu-ray

• The Future Role of Optical Storage

• 4th Gen Optical Disc

• Holographic Data Storage

• Summary

June 3, 20083 © Thomson confidential

Blu-ray - 3rd Gen Optical Disc Format

• At CES 2008 Warner announced to publish all future titles exclusively on Blu-ray discs

• Balance of power shifted from almost equal weight to clear overweight of Blu-ray titles

• Re-tailers chose to drop the HD-DVD players and titles

• On Feb 19th 2008 Toshiba announced withdrawal from HD-DVD business

• HD-DVD might survive in Chinese market

Significant R&D resources so far bound in efforts of respective camps to push their format now becoming free

June 3, 20084 © Thomson confidential

Blu-ray - Shipment Forecast

source: Nikkei Electronics Asia based on forecasts courtesy of Techno Systems Research / May 2008

Drive Shipments Disc Media Shipments

Annually doubling from 2008!

June 3, 20085 © Thomson confidential

Optical Storage - Success Factors

• Optical storage success factors and key differentiators compared with e.g. HDD and solid-state:

• media removability & exchangeability – expandable capacity– tangibility – privacy & security

• media longevity • low-cost read-only and recordable media

Any successor standard and product has to maintain these features!

June 3, 20086 © Thomson confidential

Future Optical Media – “Killer Applications” (1/2)

• Continuous progress of display technology requires new content formats

• Increased Spatial Resolution– NHK has demoed 8K at NAB and IBC 2007 – Test broadcasts may start 2016– Sharp has shown prototypes of 4K LCD panels for professional applications

(e.g. medical) – Consumer panels targeted for 2012– Sony offers a 4k projector

• Increased temporal resolution– 24p and even 60p will hardly be the end of the line

• Increased color gamut – dynamic range– Camera sensors and even LCD panels already offer much more than 8 bit

• 3D, Multi-view

• All these enhancements not addressed by BD!!!!

June 3, 20087 © Thomson confidential

Future Optical Media – “Killer Applications” (2/2)

• Professional archival • Data-intensive businesses such as media & entertainment, life

sciences, government, etc. are facing a tremendous increase in the amounts of data.

– E.g. 13 TB for 2 hrs uncompressed HD movie – Currently solved by clustered storage concepts (RAID) or magnetic tape– Analog archival is still frequently found in film business

• Very high system performance required– Very large capacity (>1TB per medium) – very high data rate at read/write

• No cost-effective storage technology with longevity and high capacity visible in short/mid-term predictions (<4 years)

• Holographic data storage may fit best

410TB

June 3, 20088 © Thomson confidential

Future Optical Media - A twofold track

• Demand for backward compatibility mandate “conventional” pit based approach for prerecorded distribution media.

• At least 4-5 times BD capacity (i.e.: > 200 GB per 12cm disc)

• Page based holographic data storage may be alternative for archival purposes (write once media)

• Have to differentiate by significantly increased capacity• Minimum capacity 1TB per media

June 3, 20089 © Thomson confidential

Optical Media Formats

BD

19801996

20032015?

2008?(prof. archiving)

June 3, 200810 © Thomson confidential

4th Gen - Technology Options

At least 3 fundamentally different technologies are currently competing to reach >200GB per 12cm disc

• Multi-layer technologies– Multiple (>2) laminated BD layers

Expensive– Microholograms

Low write data rate– 2-photon absorption

Low write data rate, rather low SNR

• Near-field optics (aka Solid Immersion Lens – SIL)• Super Resolution Near-field Structure – SuperRENS

June 3, 200811 © Thomson confidential

4th Gen – leading R&D activities/players in EU

• SuperRENS• Thomson, Leti, Obducat, Aachen University, Imperial College, Univ. Delft, …

• Near-field • Philips & Lite-on Digital Solutions, Thomson, Univ. Delft, …

• Micro-Holography• TU Berlin, Thomson, Toptica, …

• 2-photon absorption• Storex

June 3, 200812 © Thomson confidential

HDS – leading R&D players in EU

• Thomson• Bayer• Optimal Optik• LETI• Toptica• TU Berlin• Univ. Budapest• Fraunhofer Gesellschaft• etc.

June 3, 200813 © Thomson confidential

Summary and outlook

• Data storage is one of the future key technologies with huge economic impact

• Strong European position including large industrial companies, material, components and equipment suppliers

• Evolutionary “pit-based” media are considered best for content distribution

• Holography is the key technology for archival with capacities >1TB per medium

• Consolidation has happened: It is time to launch the next generation now!