Holographic Data Storage with a Digital

Micromirror Device
Daniel Bullock1, Toni Sauncy1, and Tim Dallas2
1
Physics Department, Angelo State University, San Angelo, TX 76909
2
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX 79409

Abstract

One of the promising prospects for the next generation of high-capacity non-volatile drives is
the holographic disc. The holographic data system writes bits by recording the interference between a
reference beam and an object beam containing data as a diffraction grating on a photosensitive disc1.
When the disc is illuminated with the same reference beam, the object wave is recreated allowing the
data to be accessed.
InPhase Technologies2 is currently developing a commercial holographic data storage system.
The design includes a Spatial Light Modulator (SLM) that carries the data by displaying an array of
pixels representing the bits (Figure 1)3. An inherent complication to this beampath is that the SLM is
in the path of the laser and acts as a diffraction grating. In our experiments, in order to avoid
generating spurious signals, we have used Texas Instrument’s Digital Micromirror Device (DMD) as
a reflective SLM. In this setup, the array of mirrors deflects the laser to simulate data in the object
wave. Figure 2 shows a ray trace diagram with light impinging on and reflect from an array of
micromirrors.
For simplicity in our first experimental system, a reflection hologram, rather than a
transmission hologram was tested and generated. A red helium neon laser was used to store
holographic images on a 2”x2” glass plate with a red-sensitive, photographic coating. A 2.1
megapixel DMD micromirror was used statically to encode the hologram. Figure 3 is a holographic
image that was generated. We were also successful in encoding two holograms on the same plate.
Issues such as multiple reflections from the DMD, image aberration, image contrast, and image
filtering have been addressed. In future work, we will vary the reference angle allowing more than
two holograms to be written. Given a suitable storage media, writing through the entire volume of a
disc would allow a CD-size disc with a storage capacity of approximately 16TB.

References

[1] Psaltis, D.; Burr, G.W. “Holographic data storage”. IEEE. Volume 31, Issue 2, Feb 1998 Page(s):52 - 60
[2] “Drives & Media”. InPhase Technologies. http://www.inphase-
technologies.com/products/media.asp?subn=3_2
[3] “What Is Holographic Storage?” InPhase Technologies. http://www.inphase-
technologies.com/technology/default.asp?subn=2_1

Corresponding Author: Daniel Bullock, dbullock@angelo.edu

Figure 1. Light paths and components for InPhase Figure 2. Ray trace diagram depicting incident and
Technologies holographic data storage system.3 reflected light beams striking a digital micromirror
device.

Figure 3. Holographic image of a static, 2.1 megapixel

digital micromirror array.

Corresponding Author: Daniel Bullock, dbullock@angelo.edu