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Compact disc manufacturing

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A compact disc in its jewel case.

Compact disc manufacturing is the process by which commercial compact discs (CDs)
are replicated in mass quantities using a master version created from a source recording.
This may be either in audio form (CD-Audio) or data form (CD-ROM). This process is
used in the mastering of CDs, and does not include CD-Rs or DVDs, although these are
made using similar methods.

A compact disc (CD) can be used to store audio, video, and data in various formats which
are defined in the Rainbow Books. A CD is usually manufactured in a class 100 or better
clean room, and can usually be manufactured with strict manufacturing tolerances for
only a few US cents.

CD mastering differs from burning, as the pits and lands of a mastered CD are moulded
into the CD, rather than being 'burn marks' (phase changes) by a CD burner.

Contents
[hide]

• 1 Premastering
• 2 Mastering
o 2.1 Glass mastering
o 2.2 Photoresist mastering
o 2.3 Non-photoresist or NPR mastering
• 3 Post-mastering
 • 4 Electroforming
• 5 Replication

• 6 Testing

[edit] Premastering
All CDs are pressed from a digital source, with the most common sources being low
error-rate CD-Rs or files from an attached computer hard drive containing the finished
product. Some CD pressing systems can use digital master tapes, either Digital Audio
Tapes, Exabytes or Umatics. However such sources can only be used for production of
audio CDs. If the source is not a CD, the table of contents for the CD to be pressed must
also be prepared and stored on the tape or hard drive. In all cases except CD-R, the tape
must be uploaded to a media mastering system in order for the TOC (Table Of Contents)
to be created.

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[edit] Mastering
[edit] Glass mastering

Glass mastering is performed in a class 100 or better clean room or a self-enclosed clean
environmnent within the mastering system. If introduced during critical stages of
manufacturing, contaminants such as dust, pollen, hair and smoke can render the master
unusable. Once completed, a CD will resist effects caused by these contaminants.

During glass mastering, glass is used as a substrate to hold the CD master, hence the
name, while it is created and processed. Glass substrates, noticeably larger than a CD, are
round plates of glass approximately 240 mm in diameter and 6 mm thick. They often also
have a small, steel hub on one side to facilitate handling. The substrates are created
especially for CD mastering and one side is polished until it is exceptionally smooth.
Even microscopic scratches in the glass will affect CD quality. The extra area on the
substrate allows for easier handling of the glass master and prevention of damage to the
pit structure when the "father" stamper is removed from the glass substrate.

Once the glass substrate is cleaned using detergents and ultrasonic baths, the glass is
placed in a spin coater. The spin coater spins the glass and rinses it first with a solvent
and then applies the resist (photo or non-photo). The rotation spreads the resist across the
face of the glass in an even coating. The substrate is removed and baked to dry the resist
and the glass substrate is ready for mastering.

Mastering is performed by a Laser Beam Recorder (LBR) machine. These use one of two
recording methodologies for CD mastering, photo resist and non-photoresist mastering.
Photoresist also comes in two variations positive photoresist and negative photoresist.
[edit] Photoresist mastering

Photoresist mastering uses a light-sensitive material (photoresist) to create the pits and
lands in the CD master.

The laser beam recorder uses a deep blue or ultraviolet laser to write the master. When
exposed to the laser light, the photoresist undergoes a chemical reaction which hardens it.
The exposed area is then soaked in a developer solution which removes the exposed
positive photoresist or the unexposed negative photoresist.

Once the mastering is complete, the glass master is removed from the LBR and it is
chemically developed.

Once developing is complete, the glass master must be metalized to provide a surface for
the stamper to be formed on.

[edit] Non-photoresist or NPR mastering

Once the glass is ready for mastering, it is placed in a LBR. LBRs are capable of
mastering at greater than x1 speed, but due to the weight of the glass substrate and the
requirements of a CD master they are typically mastered at no greater than x6 playback
speed. The LBR uses a deep blue or ultraviolet laser to write the information. When the
blue laser is fired at the non-photoresist layer (NPR), the pink colour of the NPR absorbs
a large quantity of the energy of the laser causing the NPR to vapourise and forming a pit
in the surface of the NPR. This pit can be scanned by a red laser, several revolutions later
and the quality of the recording can be directly and immediatetly assessed, the audio can
also be played straight from the glass master as it is being recorded. The pit geometry and
quality of the playback can all be adjusted while the CD is being mastered, as the blue
writing laser and the red read laser are typically connected via a feedback system to
optimise the recording.

This type of mastering is called Direct Read After Write or DRAW and is the main
advantage of some non-photoresist recording systems. Any problems with the quality of
the glass substrate, scratches or an uneven coating of the NPR are immediately detected
and if required the mastering can be halted.

[edit] Post-mastering
After mastering, the glass master is baked to harden the developed surface material and it
is ready for metalisation. Metalisation is a critical step prior to the electrogalvanic
manufacture (electroplating).

The developed glass master is placed in a vapour deposition metaliser which uses a
combination of mechanical vacuum pumps and cryopumps to lower the pressure inside a
chamber to a hard vacuum. A piece of nickel wire is then heated in a tungsten boat to
white hot temperature and the nickel vapour is deposited onto the rotating glass masters.
The glass masters are coated with the nickel vapour up to a typical thickness of around
400nm before they are removed.

The glass masters are removed and inspected for stains, pinholes or incomplete coverage
of the nickel coating.

[edit] Electroforming
Electroforming occurs in "Matrix", the adopted name for the electroforming process area
and is still a class 100 cleanroom. The information contained on the metalised glass
master is extremely fragile and must be transferred to a more resilient form for use in the
injection moulding equipment.

The metalised master is clamped in a conductive plating frame with the information side
facing outwards and lowered into a plating tank. The tank contains a nickel salt solution
(Nickel Sulfamate) at a specific concentration. The solution is carefully buffered to
maintain the pH and detergents are added to maintain a specific surface tension. If the
surface tension is too high, the solution cannot flow around the features on the surface
sufficiently to deposit nickel evenly. The bath is heated to approximately 40 °C.

The glass master is rotated in the plating tank while a pump circulates the nickel solution
over the surface of the master. As the electroforming progresses, nickel is drawn out of
the solution galvanically and must be replenished. This is acieved using high purity
nickel pellets (99.99% pure) suspended in the solution in non-conductive polypropylene
bags called anode bags. The plating solution flows through the bag and over the glass
master. The anode bags stop sediment formed during the nickel decomposition from
being plated on to the part. The nickel is packed firmly into the bag and forms part of the
electric circuit.

A DC current is applied to the glass master travelling through the nickel contained in the
anode bags, through the solution, and into the nickel surface of the glass master. The
electrons flow in the opposite direction to the current, from the cathode to the anode via
the solution. The electrons are stripped from the nickel in the anode bag, travelling
through the external circuit before combining with the Nickel ions in the solution at the
cathode end and forming metallic nickel on the surface of the glass master.

The current must start off quite low and be increased slowly and evenly to prevent the
metalised surface from overheating and burning like an electrical fuse. As the thickness
of the nickel on the glass master increases the current can be increased. After
approximately 1 hour the electroforming is complete. Typical stampers are 0.300 mm
thick. The part is removed from the tank and the metal part peeled off the glass substrate.
The metal part, now called a "father", has the information side as a series of bumps rather
than pits. The father is washed with deionised water and other chemicals such as sodium
hydroxide or acetone to remove any trace of resist or other contaminant. The glass can be
sent for reclaiming, to be cleaned and checked before it is used again. If a defect is
detected it will be discarded or sent for recycling.
Once cleaned of any loose nickel and resist, the father is electrolysed, washed and
clamped back into a frame and returned to the plating tank. This time the metal part that
is grown is the mirror image of the father and is called a "mother". From the mother all
the stampers used to manufacture the CDs are made. Mothers can be regrown from
Fathers if they become damaged, however if handled correctly, 10 - 20 stampers can be
grown from a mother before the quality of the stamper is called into question. Mothers
are regrown from the father if it still exists, otherwise a new glass master is made.

If the recording is going to be part of a long production run, the father may be archived,
however it is generally cut down with a hyper-accurate hydraulic punch and used as a
stamper for moulding runs. Stampers and fathers are the same "polarity", the information
surface is made up of a series of bumps. Mothers are the reverse and are made up of pits.

A father, mother, and a collection of stampers (sometimes called "sons") are known
collectively as a "family". Fathers and mothers are the same size as a glass substrate,
typically 300 μm in thickness. Stampers do not require the extra space around the outside
of the program area and they are punched to remove the excess nickel from the outside
and inside the information area in order to fit the mould of the injection moulding
machine (IMM). The physical dimensions of the mould vary from machine to machine
but some typical dimensions are common throughout the industry.

[edit] Replication
CD moulding machines are specifically designed high temperature polycarbonate
injection moulders. They have an average throughput of 550-900 discs per hour, per
moulding line. Clear polycarbonate pellets are first dried at around 130 degrees Celsius
for nominally three hours (dependent on which optical grade resin is in use) and are fed
via vacuum transport into the one end of the injection moulder's barrel (the feed throat)
and are transported to the injection chamber via a large screw inside the barrel. The
barrel, wrapped with heater bands ranging in temperature from circa 210 to 320 degrees
Celsius melts the polycarbonate. When the mould is closed the screw moves forward to
inject molten plastic into the mould cavity. When the mould is full, cool water running
through mould halves, outside the cavity, cools the plastic so it solidifies somewhat. The
entire process from the mould closing, injection and opening again takes approximately 3
to 5 seconds.

The moulded "disc" (referred to as a 'green' disc, i.e. unprocessed) is removed from the
mould by vacuum high-speed robots with vacuum suction caps and moved onto the
infeed conveyor or cooling station of the finishing line before metallisation. At this point
the discs are clear and contains all the digital information however it cannot be played
because there is no reflective layer.

The discs then pass, one at a time into the metaliser, a small chamber operating at
approximately 10E-3 Torr vacuum. This process is called 'sputtering'. The metaliser
contains a metal "target" made of an alloy of mostly aluminium and some small amounts
of other metals. There is a system of a load-lock (like an airlock so that the process
chamber can maintain high vacuum as the discs are exchanged. When the disc is rotated
into the processing position by the swivel arm in the vacuum chamber, a small dose of
argon gas is injected into the process chamber and a 700 Volt DC electrical current at up
to 20 kW is applied to the target. This results in a plasma igniting and the aluminium
target evaporates onto the disc (anode - cathode reaction). The metal coats the
information side of the disc (upper surface) and covers the pits. This metal layer is the
reflective surface that can be seen on the reverse of a CD. This thin layer of metal is
unstable and will oxidise if it is not protected by a lacquer.

After metalisation the discs pass onto a spin-coater, where UV curable lacquer is
dispensed on to the metal layer and spun rapidly to coat the entire disc in a very thin layer
(circa 70 nm). After the lacquer is applied it passes under a high intensity UV lamp which
cures the lacquer. The lacquer also provides a surface for the screen printing or offset
printing ink to adhere to.

[edit] Testing
For quality control, both the stamper and the moulded discs are tested before a production
run. Samples of the disc (test pressings) are taken during long production runs and tested
to ensure consistency of quality. The pressed discs are analyzed on a signal analysis
machine. The metal stamper can also be tested on a signal analysis machine which has
been adapted for this purpose. The machine will "play" the disc or stamper and will
measure various physical and electrical parameters. Errors can be introduced by the
moulding process, however both CD and stamper sources of errors can be located and
compensated for. If the errors are too severe then the stamper is rejected and must be
made again. An experienced operator can interpret the report from the analysis system
and optimise the moulding process to make a disc that meets the required Rainbow Book
specification (e.g. Red Book for Audio, other colors for other formats).

If no defects are found the CD continues into printing to have a label screen or offset
printed on the top of the disc and then onward to be packaged, and passed to distribution.