Classic films in high resolution, digital photographs capturing precious moments of our life, music that moves our heart, these are a just a few things that people wish they could keep forever. However, did you ever have to delete that classic TV series to make space for wedding photos, or trash your collection of oldies for new pop music, and all because your hard drive is reaching its storage capacity? To better store audio-visual data, Professor Chih-Huang Lai of the Department of Materials Science is leading a team of researchers in collaboration with China Steel and ThinTech Materials Technology (TTMC) to develop a piece of advanced storage technology. This industry-academia collaboration project is sponsored by the National Science Council. Their objective is to develop an ultra high-density magnetic recording media and sputtering targets. After one year of endeavoring research, the team has developed a commercial hard drive with a capacity of 2TB which is equivalent to 500,000 MP3 songs or 400 high resolution DVD films.

The hard disk is by far the most widely used digital recording media device. From computer accessories to iPods to online data storing servers, all use hard disks to reliable store data. According to statistics, in 2008 hard disk shipment volumes reached 500 million with an annual output of 2 trillion NT dollars and the demand continues to grow. Current hard disks being sold in the market boast large capacities for an inexpensive price. The cost of storing 1GB is only 3.5NTD. Such low cost is primarily the reason why the hard disk is so competitive when compared with other storage devices.

The hard disk records data by using nano-magnetic particles to represent either a 0 or a 1 binary digit. The smaller the magnetic particles are, the higher the density the recording media has and the more efficient the storage capacity of the media becomes. Currently the surface area used to store a single recording digit is 200 nano-square (equivalent to 1/10,000,000 of the cross-section of a strand of hair). In addition to developing future commercial disk technology, Professor Lai's team has also proposed a new nano processing technology, "atomic-scaled sputter deposition," to make the world’s first second generation of platinum-iron alloy nano particles. According to their records, the particle is only 5 nanos in diameter. The implication this technology would have for digital media recording is tremendous, it would significantly increase hard disk storage capacity by 25 times reaching over 50TB. This would enable one hard disk to store over 10,000 high resolution DVD films.

Because of the heavy technology requirements needed to produce hard disks, most manufacturing takes place in the United States and Japan. Hard disks are primarily produced using the sputter process, which constitutes half of the production cost. Professor Lai's team, The Advanced Thin Film Storage Lab, has maintained a long-term collaboration with international hard disk manufactures to develop an advanced magnetic recording technology which would meet their production needs while fully utilizing the sputtering targets technology.

Taiwan's metal industry plays a critical role in the development of such technology. Taiwan's industry has a competitive advantage in metallurgy technology and what is otherwise considered expensive recycling technologies (hard disks contain 15% platinum, which is typically considered a major cost factor). Experienced in smelting and ceramic sintering, China Steel and TTMC were able to support the hard disk production process that the team developed allowing the team to improve the technology and further apply it to the manufacture of upstream sputtering target for ultra-high density hard disks.

With the continued growth of the multimedia industry, recording media technology is in urgent need of products which can fulfill the high capacity requirements of multimedia while also being affordable. It is estimated that within the next five years, the demand for hard disks will see an annual growth of 15-20%. Due to its exceptional metal and ceramic technologies as well as its expertise in metal recycling, Taiwan now enjoys a new competitive advantage not only in the manufacture and production of hard disks but the development of hard disk technology as well. This change from provider to collaborator on hard disk technology is certainly will help Taiwanese companies reach a 50% global market share in less than three years.