Czech Firm Develops DVD that Stores Data for 160 Years

A Prague-based firm has developed a new rewritable DVD called Data Trescor Disc, which can allegedly store data for 160 years, thus resolving the problem with storing electronic data, the Prague Daily Monitor reports, citing a text originally published in the Czech daily Hospodarske noviny. The firm has applied to register a patent in the Czech Republic, after which it intends to apply for a global patent, the daily stated.

Regular DVDs can store data for only a few years. What makes the new DVD different is that ceramic and metal nanolayers with a four-atom depth are used for the recording layer, unlike the ordinary DVDs, which use organic materials. The new DVD is transparent or smoke-colored, and it bears the motto “Record me once, record me forever”. The DVD is resistant to UV radiation, magnetism, radiation, moisture and extreme temperatures.

“The technology was developed for almost three years. We are the only ones in the world to use it,” a firm representative said for Hospodarske noviny. “We place powder with metal and ceramic microparticles between two polycarbonate layers of the disc in thin nanolayers and then paste them together by UV radiation,” he explained.

“We knew that if we want to survive, we must do it differently and develop some new technology that is more advanced and China cannot copy it,” the firm representative added. “We needed a narrow, but very firm layer into which the data could be engraved. Like the cuneiform writing that also survived hundreds of years,” he added.

The firm tested the DVD’s lifespan by exposing it to extreme temperatures of up to 80 degrees Celsius for almost a year and then watching the quality of the recording.

Hospodarske noviny reported that the Czech computer and video games magazine LEVEL also tested the new DVD, where magazine staff burnt the same film on a standard DVD and the new DVD, and then placed the two DVDs behind a window for two weeks at a temperature of 30 degrees Celsius. When they tried to play the film, the organic DVD was quite unreadable, while the ceramic DVD played without any problems.

However, the new DVD, just like ordinary DVDs, is not resistant to scratches and mechanical damage.

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Source: Prague Daily Monitor