MEDIA RELEASE
Packing in six times more storage density with the help of table salt
Dr Joel Yang from the Institute of Materials Research and Engineering (IMRE), a research
institute of Singapore’s Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), with
collaborators from the National University of Singapore (NUS) and the Data Storage Institute
(DSI) has developed a process that can increase the data recording density of hard disks to
3.3 Terabit/in2, six times the recording density of current models. The key ingredient in the
much enhanced patterning method that he pioneered is sodium chloride, the chemical grade
of regular table salt.
1. Singapore, 14 October 2011 – It’s like packing your clothes in your suitcase when you
travel. The neater you pack them the more you can carry. In the same way, the team of
scientists has used nanopatterning to closely pack more of the miniature structures that
hold information in the form of bits, per unit area. Dr Joel Yang’s IMRE research team,
working with peers from A*STAR’s DSI and NUS, has used nanopatterning to create
uniform arrays of magnetic bits that can potentially store up to 3.3 Terabit/in2 of
information, six times the recording density of current devices. This means that a hard
disk drive that holds 1 Terabyte (TB) of data today could, in the future, hold 6 TB of
information in the same size using this new technology.
2. Conventional hard disks have randomly distributed nanoscopic magnetic grains - with a
few tens of grains used to form one bit – that enable the latest hard disk models to hold
up to 0.5 Terabit/in2 of information. The IMRE-led team used the bit-patterned media
approach, where magnetic islands are patterned in a regular fashion, with each single
island able to store one bit of information.
3. “What we have shown is that bits can be patterned more densely together by reducing
the number of processing steps”, said Dr Joel Yang, the IMRE scientist who heads the
project. Current technology uses very tiny ‘grains’ of about 7-8 nm in size deposited on
the surface of storage media. However, information or a single bit, is stored in a cluster of
these ‘grains’ and not in any single ‘grain’. IMRE’s bits are about 10nm in size but store
information in a single structure.
4. The method has been demonstrated to achieve data-storage capability at 1.9 Terabit/in2,
though bits of up to 3.3 Terabit/in2 densities were fabricated. “In addition to making the
bits, we demonstrated that they can be used to store data,” explained Dr Yang.
5. The secret of the research lies in the use of an extremely high-resolution e-beam
lithography process that produces super fine nano-sized structures. Dr Yang discovered
that by adding sodium chloride to a developer solution used in existing lithography
processes, he was able to produce highly defined nanostructures down to 4.5 nm half
pitch, without the need for expensive equipment upgrades. This ‘salty developer solution’
method was invented by Dr Yang when he was a graduate student at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology.
6. This work is the result of a collaborative effort with Prof Vivian Ng’s group at NUS, and Dr
Yunjie Chen, Dr Siang Huei Leong, and Mr Tianli Huang from A*STAR DSI’s 10
Terabit/in2 Magnetic Recording programme. The researchers are now looking at
increasing the storage density further.
– END –
Encl. Annex A: A*STAR Corporate Profiles
Annex B: Image of magnetic bits at the IMRE achieved densities and reference to
the published papers
For media enquiries, please contact:
Mr Eugene Low
Manager, Corporate Communications
for Institute of Materials Research and
Engineering (IMRE)
3, Research Link
Singapore 117602
DID +65 6874 8491
Mobile +65 9230 9235
Email loweom@scei.a-star.edu.sg
Ms Melissa Koh
Senior Officer, Corporate Communications
for Data Storage Institute (DSI)
5 Engineering Drive 1
(Off Kent Ridge Crescent, NUS)
Singapore 117608
DID +65 6874 6852
Email kohljm@scei.a-star.edu.sg
For technical enquiries, please contact:
Dr Joel Yang
Scientist I
Institute of Materials Research and Engineering (IMRE)
3, Research Link
Singapore 117602
DID +65 6874 8385
Email yangkwj@imre.a-star.edu.dg
Annex A - A*STAR Corporate Profiles
About the Institute of Materials Research and Engineering (IMRE)
The Institute of Materials Research and Engineering (IMRE) is a
research institute of the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR). The
Institute has capabilities in materials analysis & characterisation, design & growth, patterning
& fabrication, and synthesis & integration. We house a range of state-of-the-art equipment for
materials research including development, processing and characterisation. IMRE conducts a
wide range of research, which includes novel materials for organic solar cells, photovoltaics,
printed electronics, catalysis, bio-mimetics, microfluidics, quantum dots, heterostructures,
sustainable materials, atom technology, etc. We collaborate actively with other research
institutes, universities, public bodies, and a wide spectrum of industrial companies, both
globally and locally. For more information about IMRE, please visit www.imre.a-star.edu.sg.
About the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR)
The Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) is the lead agency for fostering
world-class scientific research and talent for a vibrant knowledge-based and innovation-driven
Singapore. A*STAR oversees 14 biomedical sciences and physical sciences and engineering
research institutes, and six consortia & centres, located in Biopolis and Fusionopolis as well
as their immediate vicinity. A*STAR supports Singapore's key economic clusters by providing
intellectual, human and industrial capital to its partners in industry. It also supports extramural
research in the universities, and with other local and international partners. For more
information about A*STAR, please visit www.a-star.edu.sg.
Annex B - Image of magnetic bits at the IMRE achieved densities and reference to the
published papers
Fabrication and characterization of bit-patterned media beyond 1.5 Tbit/in2
Joel K WYang, Yunjie Chen, Tianli Huang, Huigao Duan,Naganivetha Thiyagarajah, Hui Kim
Hui, SiangHuei Leong and Vivian Ng
Nanotechnology 22 (2011) 385301
DOI:10.1088/0957-4484/22/38/385301
Using high-contrast salty development of hydrogen silsesquioxane for sub-10-nm half-
pitch lithography
Joel K W Yang, Karl K Berggren
Journal of Vacuum Science and Technology B: Microelectronics and Nanometer Structures
(2007); Volume: 25, Issue: 6, Pages: 2025
DOI: 10.1116/1.2801881
Scanning electron
microscopy images of
magnetic bits at densities
of (a) 1.9 Terabit/in2 and
(b) 3.3 Terabit/in2 formed
after depositing Co/Pd
multilayers onto resist
structures.
Email kohljm@scei.a-star.edu.sg
For technical enquiries, please contact:
About the Institute of Materials Research and Engineering (IMRE)
About the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR)
Using high-contrast salty development of hydrogen silsesquioxane for sub-10-nm half-pitch lithography
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