Electronics firm Pioneer have developed a new 16 layer read only optical disc that has the capacity to store 400 gigabytes of data.
Each layer of the disc is capable of individually storing 25 gigabytes which is the same as that of a Blu-ray disc. The multilayer recording technology will also be applicable to recordable discs, boosting confidence that optical disc storage will remain a viable option in the future as increased storage capacities are required.
By using optical disc production technology that the firm has already has in place in the DVD field, pioneer has overcome problems of crosstalk from adjacent layers by using a new disc structure. This results in a 16 layer optical disc capable of playing back high-quality signals from every layer.
Pioneer achieved stability in the playback of recorded signals by employing a wide-range spherical aberration compensator and light-receiving element that can read out weak signals at a high signal-to-noise ratio in the optical pick-up mechanism.
Since the optical specifications of the objective lens, such as NA (Numerical Aperture), are the same as those for the existing BD discs, it is possible to maintain compatibility between the new 16-layer optical disc and the BD discs.
