Demand for data storage continues to grow at a rate of over 40% in part a result of the movement to cloud storage. Most of the world’s digital information is and will continue to be stored on hard drives. Innovation in the read-write transducer, from which information is recorded and read, is critical to increased hard drive data capacity. Today, 25% of the world's transducers are manufactured in the UK giving us a unique opportunity to grow as demand for this complex nano-engineered component increases. This project will deliver a smart hard drive with improved data capacity using atomically engineered materials to enable Heat Assisted Magnetic Recording (HAMR). Smart materials, engineered at the atomic scale, will boost performance and reliablity for HAMR hard drives, decreasing time to market. Seagate is a leader in developing HAMR technology and we will demonstrate the feasibility read-write transducers with these new engineered materials. Southampton University a world leader in the area of engineered nanophotonic materials while Ilika provides the implementation path to demonstrate these materials at the required pilot line scale for the first time.

Demand for data storage continues to grow at a rate up to 40% in part a result of the movement to cloud storage. Most of the world’s digital information is and will continue to be stored on hard drives. Innovation in the read-write transducer, from which information is recorded and read, is critical to increased hard drive data capacity. Today, 25% of the world's transducers are manufactured in the UK giving us a unique opportunity to grow as demand for this complex nano-engineered component increases. This project will deliver a process for photonic material development with improved data capacity using engineered materials to enable Heat Assisted Magnetic Recording (HAMR). Photonic materials, engineered with new process methods, will boost performance and reliablity for HAMR hard drives, decreasing time to market. Seagate is a leader in developing HAMR technology and we will demonstrate the feasibility read-write transducers with these new engineered materials. Ilika is a leader in the area of material development and will provide the implementation path to demonstrate these materials at the required pilot line scale for the first time.

The Smart Nano-Manufacturing Corridor (SNMC) will bring together organisations from across Northern Ireland, using local strengths in Smart and Nano-Manufacturing to create a consortium with over 2000 jobs, providing value add of £220m to the local economy and increasing skill levels in local communities. Companies in Northern Ireland will get access to new innovation capabilities, addressing market opportunities in the healthcare, internet communications and cloud data storage sectors.