Patent · US Expired

Apparatus and method for storing and/or reading data on an optical disk

US6272095A · kind A · utility

34Cited by
8References
137Claims
0Family size

Assignees

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateApr 21, 1995
Grant dateAug 7, 2001
Priority date
Expiry dateApr 21, 2015

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG11B7/28
  • WIPO fieldAudio-visual technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

An optical memory for storing and/or reading data on an optical disk. The optical disk incorporates a material in which holographic gratings can be created at plural locations within the disk. An electro-optical head which is capable of creating these holographic gratings at any one of the plural locations is employed. The head is additionally capable of detecting the presence or absence of a holographic grating at any one of these plural locations. The presence of the holographic grating could indicate a first binary state and the absence of the holographic grating indicate a second state. Alternately, the electro-optical head could be used to vary the diffraction efficiency of the holographic gratings during their creation. In that case, the head would also be capable of detecting this variation in efficiency and produce a proportional detection signal. This signal would be used as an indicator of the value of the stored data element. The material of the optical disk is further capable of having multiple holographic gratings created at each one of the plural locations. These multiple holographic gratings are created via a beam of light from the electro-optical head which has a di…

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.