MA2 (Invited)

09:15 09:45

Holographic Versatile Disc (HVD) System

Hideyoshi Horimai and Yoshio Aoki
OPTWARE Corporation
NISSO 13th Bld. 7th Floor, 2-5-1 Shin-Yokohama, Kohoku-ku, Yokohama, Kanagawa 222-0033, Japan
yaoki@optware.co.jp, hhorimai@optware.co.kp

ABSTRACT
Holographic Versatile Disc (HVD) system using Collinear Holographic Technologies is one
of the best candidates for the ultra-high density and ultra-high speed removable storage media.
The HVD structure and its unique selectable capacity recording format are proposed to assure
data interchangeability as well as upward and downward compatibility.

1. Introduction
Holographic information storage systems (HISS) have been a good candidate for a volumetric recording
technology, due to their large storage capacities and high transfer rates. Recently, revival of activity in HISS has
resulted from the dramatic developments in the requisite components for such a system, such as laser technology,
spatial light modulators (SLM) and complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) image sensors [1].
Within the last several years, unique demonstration platforms using digital volume holography have been proposed.
Holographic Versatile Disc (HVD) system using Collinear Technology, a new technology for HISS, is
proposed and demonstrated by OPTWARE Corporation [2]. This technology can produce a small, practical HISS
more easily than conventional 2-axis holography. In this paper, we will review Collinear Technology.

2. Collinear Technology and Its Theoretical Model

The unique feature of Collinear Technology is that 2-D page data are recorded as volume holograms
generated by a co-axially aligned information beam and a reference beam, which are displayed simultaneously by
the same SLM, and interfere with each other in the recording disc through a single objective lens, as shown in Fig. 1.
HVD has a reflective layer with pre-formatted address information [3]. Based on this layer, focusing servo and
tracking servo technology can be used with a red laser in the recording and the reconstructing process. This will
precisely maintain the distance and the relative position of the objective lens and the disc, and the holograms can be
recorded and reconstructed in a HVD accurately even if there is axial deflection or radial runout. Furthermore a
vibration isolator is not necessary anymore [4]. Analysis of the theoretical model, as shown in Fig. 2, has shown
that Collinear Technology has significant advantages compared to conventional 2-axis holography [5]. The
Collinear holographic three-dimensional image is also observed directly by laser profile microscope [6].
Green Laser Beam

DBS

O

Truck
Servo

SLM

Inner :Information
Outer :Reference
Diffracted information
beam (page data)

PBS

Diffracted reference
beam (modulated)

Red
Laser

Objective Lens

Focus
Servo

Tracking

Photo Detector

Fourier transformed
information beam
Fourier transformed
reference beam

Focusing

HVDTM

Cover Layer

Cover Layer
Recording Layer

Recording Layer
Reflective Layer
Recorded Hologram

Reflective Layer & Servo Info.

Figure 1. Optical configuration of Collinear Technology.

Figure 2

Analyzing Model of Collinear Technology

3. Special Disc Structure of HVD

In HVD system, the green (or blue) and red laser beams are combined to the same axis and are transmitted
through a single objective lens. For this reason, a special disc structure of HVD has been designed. Figure 3
shows the six layers structure schematically. In order to eliminate the diffraction noise into the recording media
caused by the embossed pits, a dichroic mirror interlayer is used. The red laser beam for optical servo control will

0-7803-9494-1/06/$20.002006 IEEE

reach to the pre-format reflection layer. However, the green (or blue) laser beams for forming hologram is
perfectly reflected by this dichroic mirror interlayer. Figure 4 shows image quality comparison between (a) with
and (b) without dichroic mirror interlayer, respectively. The dichroic mirror interlayer eliminates diffraction noise
effectively [7].
Green or
Blue Light

Red Light

(a)

(b)

Cover Layer
Recording Layer
(Photo Polymer)
Gap Layer

Hologram

Dichroic Mirror
Interlayer
Address Pit

Figure 3.

Aluminum
Reflection Layer

Base Layer

Dichroic reflective structure of HVD.

Figure 4

Reconstructed images from HVD (a) with and

(b) without dichroic mirror interlayer.

The special disc structure which has mentioned above simplifies the optical systems allowing small and
compact packaging of all required optics and electronics on the same side of the disc. This method will enable us
to construct a small volumetric optical disc storage system, compatible with existing disc storage systems, like CD
and DVD.
In HVD, the recording density can be improved by reducing the shift pitch used in shift multiplexing method.
Because the hologram recording layer is separated optically from the pre-formatted layer, the shift pitch can be
arbitrarily adjusted based on the location information obtained from the pre-formatted layer, and the storage capacity
can be changed freely, this is the concept of the selectable capacity recording format [8].

4. HVD Systems Margin

Investigation of system margins is very important to produce a small, practical and low cost HVD system,.
The tilt margin and wavelength margin compared with conventional 2-axis holography, and de-focus and de-track
margins compared with DVD have been studied in experiments. In the experiment a media thickness of 500 Pm is
used.
The tilt margin of Collinear Technology is over eight times larger than that of conventional 2-axis holography
for the same thickness of the media, as shown in Fig. 5 [1,2,9]. The wavelength margin of Collinear Technology
is over three times larger than that of conventional 2-axis holography for the same thickness of the media [1,9,10].
This result is also proven theoretically [11]. The experiments and theoretical studies suggest that a laser diode is
very suitable as a light source of our HVD-ROM system [12]. The defocus margin and de-track margin of the
HVD compared with DVDs specifications are shown in Fig. 11 and Fig. 12. The results of the experiment
indicate that both the defocus margin and de-track margin of collinear technology are over six times larger than
those of DVDs specifications [4,9].

Collinear Holography

Diffraction Efficiency

Diffraction Efficiency

2-Axis Holography

Collinear Holography

2-Axis Holography

2005 OPTWARE

Disc Tilt (degree)

 2005 OPTWARE

Figure 5. Tilt margin analysis of diffraction efficiency

at medium thickness of 500 Pm.

'O (nm)

Figure 6. Wavelength margin analysis of diffraction

efficiency at medium thickness of 500 Pm.

Symbol Error

Symbol Error

DVD Spec

DVD Spec

2005 OPTWARE

Defocus (m)

2005 OPTWARE

Figure 7. Defocus margin analysis of symbol error

count compared with DVD specification.

De-Track (m)

Figure 8. De-track margin analysis of symbol error

count compared with DVD specification.

5. Standardization
Ecma International has created Technical Committee 44 (TC44) to develop a standardization strategy for HISS,
initially based upon the Collinear Technologies of OPTWARE Corporation, a leading developer of HVD
storage products, TC44 was set up at the request of OPTWARE Corporation and several of its partners [8]. TC44
will begin standardizing three different storage media: Holographic Versatile Disc cartridges (capacity: 200 Gbytes
per cartridge), read-only Holographic Versatile Discs (capacity: 100 Gbytes per disc) and Holographic Versatile
Cards (capacity: 30 Gbytes per card). The fourth project is standardization of a case for 120mm read-only
HVDs. The first products will be produced in 2006.

6. Conclusions
HVD system using Collinear Technologies is one of the best candidates for the ultra-high density and
ultra-high speed removable storage media. Collinear Technologies will make commercialization of HVD
systems economically feasible. A unique selectable capacity recording format of HVD enables both downward
and upward compatibility of different disc capacities. System margins are wide enough to produce a small,
practical and low cost HVD system. The new standards of HVD will be submitted to ISO for fast-tracking
processing.

7. References
1.
2.
3.
4.

5.

6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.

For example, H. J. Coufal, D. Psaltis, and G. T. Sincerbox, eds., Holographic Data Storage, Springer Series in
Optical Sciences, (Springer, Berlin, 2000).
H. Horimai and X. Tan, Advanced Collinear Holography, Opt. Rev., 12, No. 2, 90-92 (2005).
H. Horimai, X. Tan, and J. Li, Collinear Holography, Appl. Opt., 44, No. 13, 2575-2579 (2005).
H. Horimai and X. Tan, Holographic Versatile Disc System, in SPIE Symposium on Optics & Photonics 2005,
Organic Holographic Materials and Applications III (San Diego, California, USA, 2005), Klaus Meerholz eds.,
Proceedings of SPIE 5939, 1-9 (2005).
T. Shimura, S. Ichimura, R. Fujimura, K. Kuroda, X. Tan, and H. Horimai, Calculation of the Pixel Spread
Function with a Simple Numerical Model for the Collinear Holographic Storage System, ISOM/ODS 2005,
post deadline paper (2005).
H. Matsumoto and H. Horimai, Direct Observation of Collinear Holographic Image, ISOM/ODS 2005, MP12
(2005).
H. Horimai and X. Tan, Collinear Technology for Holographic Versatile Disc, Appl. Opt., 45, No. 5,
Accepted (2006).
H. Horimai and Y. Aoki, Holographic Versatile Disc (HVD), ISOM/ODS 2005, ThE6 (2005).
H. Horimai and X. Tan, Holographic versatile disc system and tolerance, in Technical Digest of 20th Congress
of the International Commission for Optics, 0408-207, 190 (Changchu, China, 2005).
H. Horimai, X. Tan, J. Li, and K. Suzuki, Wavelength Margin Analysis in Advanced Collinear Holography,
Jap. J. Appl. Phys., 44, No. 5B, 3493-3494 (2005).
S. R. Lambourdiere, A. Fukumoto, K. Tanaka, and K. Watanabe, Holographic Data Storage Simulator for the
Collinear Optical System Using Shift Correlation Multiplexing, ISOM/ODS 2005, MB4 (2005).
H. Horimai and X. Tan, Read-only holographic versatile disc system using a laser diode, in Holography 2005,
Proceedings of SPIE 6252, Accepted (2005).