Disc That Can Store Data for A Million Years

Monday, October 28, 2013

Indestructible Information

Jeroen de Vries of the university of Twente MESA + Institute for Netherlands has developed an optical disc that carries information for an extremely long period and is highly durable and nearly indestructible. This development comes in at a time when there is increasing need of memory storage, but the lack of durability and longevity of the storage devices.

The information carrier is a wafer made up of tungsten encapsulated by silicon nitride, as the tungsten can withstand extremely high temperatures. The device uses etching techniques to write each bit of information. A QR code (Type of 2D barcode) is embedded into the tungsten and is protected by the nitride. Each pixel of the QR code consists of a smaller QR code, which in turn stores different information.

The disc was tested according to the Arrhenius model which states that, a medium should keep working for at least 1 million years if it is heated to 200 degrees Celsius. The test proved to be successful as the information could be easily read even after the heating.


The most wonderful and precious element of universe is the human life which can only be guided by the right knowledge and right attitude. So, here is an ocean of knowledge, both in English and Hindi encompassing every detail and each facet of human life which ‘one must know’ in order to grow and attain the summits of success. A team of around 200 dedicated members is working ceaselessly to turn such a colossal dream into reality. We are confident that this portal will help bring change in people across the world.

Content creation, research, development and execution done in-house at Aatman Innovations.