Ruggedized digital holographic data storage with fast access

Recent investigations in holographic mass memory systems have produced proof-of-concept demonstrations that have highlighted their potential for providing unprecedented capacity, data transfer rates and fast random access performance (Heanue et al. 1994; Hong et al. 1995; Psaltis and Mok 1995; Bernal et al. 1996; McMichael et al. 1996). The exploratory nature of most such investigations has been largely confined to benchtop experiments which have ignored the practical constraints of packaging and environmental concerns. We have embarked on an effort to demonstrate the holographic mass memory concept by developing a compact prototype system geared for avionics and similar applications which demand the following features (mostly interdependent factors): (1) solid state design (no moving parts), (2) fast data seek time, (3) robust with respect to environmental factors (temperature, vibration, shock). In this paper, we report on the development and demonstration of two systems, one with 100 MB and the other with more than 1 GB of storage capacity. Both systems feature solid state design with the addressing mechanism realized with acoustooptic deflectors that are capable of better than 50 μsec data seek time. Since the basic designs for the two systems are similar, we describe only the larger system in detail. The operation of the smaller system has been demonstrated in various environments including hand-held operation and thermal/mechanical shock; a photograph of the smaller system is provided, as well as actual digital data retrieved from the same system.