Financial Post

January 8, 2004

Compact discs could be obsolete in five years, experts say, superceded by a new generation of fingertip-sized memory tabs with no moving parts.

Each device could store more than a gigabyte of information in just one cubic centimetre of space.

Scientists have developed the technology by melding together organic and inorganic materials. They say it could be used to produce a single-use memory card that stores data and is faster and easier to operate than a CD.

Turning the invention into a commercially viable product might take as little as five years, they claim. The card would not involve any moving parts, such as the laser and motor drive required by compact discs.

Its secret is the discovery of a previously unknown property of a commonly used conductive plastic coating.

Scientists at Princeton University and computer giants Hewlett-Packard combined the polymer with very thin film electronics.

Princeton electrical engineering professor Stephen Forrest said the device would be like a standard CD-R disc but but it would also resemble a PC memory chip, because it would plug directly into an electronic circuit and have no moving parts. "The device could probably be made cheaply enough that one-time use would be the best way to go," Mr. Forrest said.

© National Post 2004