NANO TECHNOLOGY BASED

DATA STORAGE
ABSTRACT

Storing data in the storage devices such as Magnetic Tape drives, Hard drives,
Floppy drives, Compact-Disc, DRAM, SRAM, FLASH, etc, is important or the inormation
technology !orld" #ut as this industry gro!ing on the needs o storing data is increasing
tremendously" $e re%uire high data capacity, high data transer rates" Current trend storage
devices can not meet this re%uirement" &n this medley 'anotechnology is useul to design
high data compression storage devices !ith higher data rates" &n this regard (ltrahigh
storage densities o up to ) T*+in," or more can *e achieved *y using local-pro*es
techni%ues to !rite, read *ac-, and erase data in very thin polymer ilms" The
thermomechanical scaning-pro*e-*ased data-storage concept, internally du**ed
.millipede/, com*ines ultrahigh density,, and high data rates" High data rates are achieved
*y parallel operation o large ,D arrays !ith thousands micro+nanomechanical
cantilevers+tips that can *e *atch-a*ricated *y silicon surace-micromachining techni%ues"
The inherent parallelism, the ultrahigh areal densities and the small orm actor may open up
ne! perspectives and opportunities or application in areas *eyond those envisaged today"
NANO-TECHNOLOGY

The construction of materials whose physical constraints such as length, area, volume
rang from 1nm to 100nm. The properties of materials such as physical, chemical, etc,. at this
scale are different from at usual scale.
A physicist Richard P. Feynman in Decemer 1!"! introduced this concept and he
said that #There$s Plenty of Room at the %ottom & An 'nvitation to (nter a )ew Field of
Physics.# *e notified the possiility of construction of a structure y atom&y&atom from
individual atoms which are precisely +oined y chemical forces. Finally this led to the a
rootic device at nanoscale dimensions that could automatically assemle atoms to create
molecules of the desired chemical compounds ased on the new concept ,universal
assemler-. For instance diamond can e formed from such a root from asic caron atoms
with low cost and large si.e, light weight, highly hard.
NANOTECHNOLOGY APPLIED TO STORE DATA
/ilicon&ased semiconductor memory chips and magnetic hard drives have een
dominating the data&storage mar0et and they have their limitations as magnetic data storage
can not e1ceed the areal density 2"0 3it4in2. At the same time DRA5, /RA5, F6A/*
5emory chips having the limitations no of Transistors per chip and difficulties in decreasing
feature si.e7289. These limitations can e overcome through the new innovative technology
namely )A): T(;*):6:3<. Applying nanotechnology to data storage will result in
memory devices with high capacity of aeral density of 1 Tera%yte4s=uare inch. Techni=ues
that use nanometer&sharp tips for imaging and investigating the structure of materials down
to the atomic scale, such as the atomic force 7AF59 is suitale for the development of
ultrahigh&density storage devices. As the simple tip is a very reliale tool for the ultimate
local confinement of interaction, tip&ased storage techno&logies can e regarded as natural
candidates for e1tending the physical limits that are eing approached y conventional
magnetic and semiconductor storage.

NANO-TIP

A sharp pointer type o+ect having nano dimensions is a nano&tip are cantilever.
/everal of such tipscalled proe and large no.of such proes is used to write and read ac0
data using thermomechanical method on a thin polymer film. The thermomechanical proe&
ased data&storage concept, millipede>, comines ultrahigh density, small form factor, and
high data rates y means of highly parallel operation of a large numer of proes. This device
stores digital information in a completely different way from magnetic hard dis0s, optical
dis0s, and transistor&ased memory chips. The ultimate locality is provided y a tip, and
high data rates result from the massively parallel operation of such tips.

PRINCIPLES OF OPERATION

'n cantilever&array storage techni=ue 'nformation is stored as se=uences of inden&
tations. The presence and asence of indentations will also e referred to as logical mar0s.
(ach cantilever performs write4read4 erase operations within an individual storage field with
an area on the order of 100?100 @m2. Arite4read operations depend on a mechanical 04y
scanning of either the entire cantilever array chip or the storage medium. The tip&medium
spacing can e either controlled gloally y a single 1&actuation system for the entire array, or
y simply assemling the device with a well&controlled 1&position of the components such
that the 1&position of each tip falls within a predetermined range.
(fficient parallel operations of large 2D arrays can e achieved y a row4column
time&multiple1ed addressing scheme similar to that implemented in DRA5s. 'n our device,
the multiple1ing scheme could e used to address the array column y column with full
parallel write4read operation within one column. The time etween two pulses eing applied
to the cantilevers of the same column corresponds to the time it ta0es for a cantilever to move
from one logical&mar0 position to the ne1t. An alternative approach is to access all or a
suset of the cantilevers simultaneously without resorting to the row4column multiple1ing
scheme. ;learly, the latter solution yields higher data rates, whereas the former leads to a
lower implementation comple1ity of the electronics.

WRITING AND READING OF DATA
Thermomechanical writing is achieved y applying a local force through the
cantilever4tip to the polymer layer and simultaneously softening the polymer layer y local
heating. The tip is heated y application of a current pulse to a resistive heater integrated in
the cantilever directly aove the tip. 'nitially, the heat transfer from the tip to the polymer
through the small contact area is very poor, ut it improves as the contact area increases. This
means that the tip must e heated to a relatively high temperature of aout B00C; to initiate
softening. :nce softening has een initiated, the tip is pressed into the polymer, and hence
the indentation si.e is increased.


'maging and reading are done using a thermomechanical sensing concept. To
read the written information, the heater cantilever originally used for writing is given the
additional function of a thermal read ac0 sensor y e1ploiting its temperature&dependent
resistance. For read&ac0 sensing, the resistor is operated at a temperature in the range of
1"0>D00C;, which is not high enough to soften the polymer as in the case of writing. The
principle of thermal sensing is ased on the fact that the thermal conductance etween heater
platform and storage su&strate changes as a function of the distance etween them. The
medium etween the heater platform and the storage sustrate, in our case air, transports heat
from the cantilever to the sustrate. Ahen the distance etween cantilever and sustrate
decreases as the tip moves into a it indentation, the heat transport through the air ecomes
more efficient. As a result, the evolution of the heater temperature differs in response to a
pulse eing applied to the cantilever. 'n particular, the ma1imum value achieved y the
temperature is higher in the asence of an indentation. As the value of the variale resistance
depends on the temperature of the cantilever, the ma1imum value achieved y the
resistance will e lower as the tip moves into an indentationE During the read process, the
cantilever resistance reaches different values, depending on whether the tip moves into an
indentation 7logical it >1>9 or over a region without an indentation 7logical it >0>9. Fnder
typical operating conditions, the sensitivity of thermomechanical sensing e1ceeds that of
pie.oresistive&strain sensing, which is not surprising ecause in semiconductors thermal
effects are stronger than strain effects.
SYSTEM ASPECTS

(ach cantilever can write data to and read data from a dedicated area of the polymer
sustrate, called a storage field. As mentioned aove, in each storage field the presence
7asence9 of an indentation corresponds to a logical >1> 7>0>9. All indentations are nominally
of e=ual depth and si.e. The logical mar0s are placed at a fi1ed hori.ontal distance from each
other along a data trac0. Ae refer to this distance, measured from one logical mar0 center to
the ne1t, as the it pitch 7%P9. The vertical 7cross&trac09 distance etween logical mar0
centers, the trac0 pitch 7TP9, is also fi1ed. To read and write data the polymer medium is
moved under the 7stationary9 cantilever array at a constant velocity in the 0&direction y the
micro&scanner under the control of a servo system.
THE SERVO MECHANISM FOR X-Y POSITION OF CANTILIVER
ARRAY

'n general, the servo system in a scanning&proe data&storage device has two
functions. First, it locates the trac0 where information is to e written or from which
information is to e read, starting from an aritrary initial scanner position. This is achieved
y the so&called see0 and settle procedures. During see0, the scanner is rapidly moved with
the help of thermal position sensors so that the read4write proes are at a position close to the
eginning of the target trac0. A smaller further move in the cross&trac0 direction from that
position to the center of the target trac0 is achieved during the settle mode. As the actuation
distances during the see0 and settle modes are very small, i.e., on the order of 100 @m, the
average data&access time is e1pected to e on the order of B ms. The second function of the
servo system is to maintain the position of the read4write proe on the center of the target
trac0 during normal read4write operation. This is achieved y the so&called trac0&follow
procedure. Trac0 following controls the fine positioning of the read4write proe in the cross&
trac0 direction and is critical for reliale storage and retrieval of user data. 't is typically
performed in a feedac0 loop driven y a position&error signal, which indicates the deviation
of the current position from the trac0 center line. A roust way to achieve synchroni.ation
and servo control in an 14y&actuated large 2D array is y reserving a small numer of storage
fields e1clusively for timing recovery and servo&control purposes.
ADVANTAGE OF SCANNING-PROBE STORAGE

'mportant characteristic of a storage device is the sustained data rate for storing
or retrieving information. /canning&proe storage is inherently slow in storing or reading
ac0 information with only a single proe or sensor. Figure G shows the user data rate as a
function of the total numer of cantilevers accessed simultaneously. 'n this diagram, T
denotes the time it ta0es for a proe to move from the center of a logical mar0 to the center of
the ne1t logical mar0. (=uivalently, 14T represents the symol rate per proe. 'n this scenario
a 7d H1, - H >9&constrained coding scheme is assumed. For e1ample, for a GBIGB cantilever
array, a system designed to access a ma1imum of only 2"G cantilevers every T H " 2s yields a
user data rate of DB.1 54s.
CONCLUSION

A very large 2D array of AF5 proes has een operated for the first time in a
multiple1ed4parallel fashion, and write4read4erase operations in a thin polymer medium have
een successfully demonstrated at densities significantly higher than those achieved with
current magnetic storage systems.

The >millipede> array has the potential to achieve ultrahigh areal storage
densities on the order of 1 Tit4in.2 or higher. The high areal storage density, small form
factor, and low power consumption render the >millipede> concept a very attractive
candidate as a future storage technology for moile applications ecause it offers several
gigaytes of capacity at data rates of several megaytes per second.
Although several of the asic uilding loc0s of >millipede> technology have
een demonstrated 7high&density thermomechanical writing and reading9, there are a numer
of issues that need further investigation, such as overall system reliaility, including long&
term staility of written indentations, tip and media wear, limits of data rates, array and
cantilever si.e as well as tradeoffs etween data rate and power consumption.