US Patent 8206803 - Nanocrystal HDD

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/8206803.html

Commercial HDDs (hard disk drives) typically use magnetic disks to store information but it is difficult to achieve recording densities higher than 500 Gb per square inch. This patent from Seagate teaches using a disk formed from a nanocrystal layer sandwiched between insulating layers to trap charge and obtain recording densities of greater than 1 Tb per square inch. Claim 1 reads:

1. An information storage medium comprising:

a conductive layer;

a first insulating layer formed on a surface of the conductive layer;

a nanocrystal layer that is formed on the first insulating layer and comprises conductive nanocrystal particles; and

a second insulating layer formed on the nanocrystal layer,

wherein the conductive nanocrystal particles are configured to trap electrons that tunnel through the second insulating layer and thereby record information.