1

SEMINAR REPORT

Entitled


BLU-RAY DISC TECHNOLOGY"

5ubmitted in portio/ fu/fi//ment of the requirement
for the ueqree of

resented Subm|tted 8y

Mr HARSHIL PARIKH
(RoII No. U08EC359)
B. TECH. IV (EIectronics & Communication) 7
th
Semester


6uided 8y

Prof. N. B. KANIRKAR

Associate Professor, ECED

(DECEMBER - 2011)
ELECTRONICS ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT
Sardar VaIIabhbhai NationaI Institute of TechnoIogy
Surat-395 007, Gujarat, INDIA.





ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I take this opportunity with much pleasure to thank all the people who have helped me to
complete this seminar report titled 'BLU-RAY DISC TECHNOLOGY. I express my
sincere gratitude towards ProI. N. B. KANIRKAR , who gave me a chance to work under
his guidance and support. He was always there clear my doubts and queries. I would also
like to thank our Head oI the Department Dr. (Mrs.) Suprava Patnaik Ior the Iacilities
which were made available to me as and when required. Also a special thanks to all the
Iaculty members oI the Electronics Engineering Department who were always around to
help me and explore my area oI interest

I would also like to thank the administration oI the ECED department Ior being helpIul
and cooperative.




Signature
(Harshil Parikh)









LU-RAY DISC TECHNOLOGY

Abstract
Optical discs share a major part among the secondary storage devices. Blu-ray disc is a
next generation optical disc Iormat. The technology utilizes a blue laser diode operating at
a wavelength oI 405nm to read and write data. Because oI the blue laser it can store
enormous amount oI data than was ever possible. Data is stored on a BD in the Iorm oI
tiny ridges on the surIace oI an opaque1.1mm thick substrate. This lies beneath a
transparent .1mm protective layer. With the help oI Blu-ray recording devices it is
possible to record up to .5 hrs oI very high quality audio and video on a single BD.


Blu-ray also promises some added security, making ways Ior copyright protections. Bd
can have a unique ID written on them to have copyright protection inside the recorded
streams. Blu-ray Disc takes the DVD technology one step Iurther just by using a laser
with a nice colour. Because the Blu-ray Disc utilizes global standard "MPEG- Transport
Stream" compression technology highly compatible with digital broadcasting Ior video
recording, a wide range oI content can be recorded. It is possible Ior the Blu-ray Disc to
record digital high deIinition broadcasting while maintaining high quality and other data
simultaneously with video data iI they are received together. In addition, the adoption oI a
unique ID written on a Blu-ray Disc realizes high quality copyright protection Iunction.




-Prepared by - Guided by
HARSHIL PARIKH PROF. N.B.KANIRKAR
Roll No. U08EC59 Associate ProIessor




4



Sardar Vallabhbhai National Institute of Technology
Surat-395 007, Gujarat, INDIA.

ELECTRONICS ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT








This is to certiIy that the Tech IV (7
th
Semester) SEMINAR REPORT
entitled ~LU-RAY DISC TECHNOLOGY is presented & submitted by Candidate
Mr HARSHIL PARIKH, bearing Roll No.U08EC359, in the partial IulIillment oI the
requirement Ior the award oI Tech degree in Electronics & Communication
Engineering


He has successIully and satisIactorily completed his Seminar Exam in all respect.
We, certiIy that the work is comprehensive, complete and Iit Ior evaluation.



Prof. N. B. KANIRKAR Prof. N. B. KANIRKAR Dr. S. PATNAIK
Seminar Guide UG In-charge, ECED Head oI the Deptt., ECED
Associate ProIessor Associate ProIessor Associate ProIessor


SEMINAR EXAMINERS :

Name Signature with date

1.ProI.

.ProI.

.ProI.

DEPARTMENT SEAL
December-2011

5

INDEX

List of Figures 5
List of Tables 6
1 The objective of lu-ray Disc format 8
2 Optimization of the Cover Layer thickness 12
3 lu-ray Disc format 20
31 lu-ray Disc format overview 20
32 Physical format 20
33 Outline of the file system application format 29
331 Application format 29
332 File System format 31
4 Multi Layer disc 32
41 Dual Layer disc 32
42 Triple Layer disc and Quadruple Layer disc
(DXL) 35
43 Requirements for signal quality 38
5 Contents Protection System and Interface 46
6 Hard-Coating for are Discs 48








List of Figures

Fig No Description Page no
1(a) Evolution oI consumer optical discs
1(b) Relation oI Data transIer rate, Recording time and Required
capacity

1(c)
Evolution of the package media for movie application

1(d) The driving Iorce to promote HD


2(a) Numerical Aperture
2(b) ReIraction angle error
2(c) A wave Iront oI light diverging Irom an imaginary light source
2(d) Cover Layer has a Iunctio n oI optically diluting
2(e) Cover Layer is selected Ior BD-RE
3(a) Wavelength dependency on transparency
3(b) Comparison in the beam size


3(c) The structure oI Dual Layer disc


3(d) Groove recording


3(e) In-Groove or On-Groove
3(f) The density comparison in two modulation codes


3(g) An example oI the laser waveIorm Ior recording on RE media


3(h) Clip InIormation File


4(a) Dual Layer disc
4(b) The necessary condition on optical property oI L1 Layer
4(c) Eye diagrams oI read out sign al Irom BD -D u al L ay er d isc
with ca pa city oI 5 0 GB

4(d) BrieI parameters oI pickup and disc structure
4(e) Compatibility between legacy and BDXL










List of Tables

Table No Description Page no
3(a) Key parameters oI BD
4(a) BrieI physical speciIications oI SL disc and DL disc
4(b) BrieI physical speciIications oI all BD discs




























8

The Objective of lu-ray Disc format Chapter-1

The standards Ior 1 cm optical discs, CDs, DVDs, and Blu-ray Rewritable discs (BD-RE
Standard V1.0) were established in 198, 199, and 00, respectively. The recording
capacity required by applications was the important issue when these standards were
decided (See Fig.1.(a)) The requirement Ior CDs was 4 minutes oI recording -channel
audio signals and a capacity oI about 800 MB. For DVDs, the requirement as a video disc
was the recording oI a movie with a length oI two hours and IiIteen minutes using the SD
(Standard DeIinition) with MPEG- compression. The capacity was determined to be 4.
GB considering the balance with image quality. In the case oI the Blu-ray Dis,
abbreviated as BD hereaIter, a recording oI an HDTV digital broadcast greater than two
hours is needed since the BS digital broadcast started in 000 and terrestrial digital
broadcast has begun in 00. It was a big motivation Ior us to realize this in an optical
disc the recorder. In a DVD recorder, received and decoded video signals are compressed
by an MPEG encoder and then recorded on the disc. To record in the same Iashion an
HDTV broadcast, an HDTV MPEG- encoder is required.


However, such a device Ior home use has not yet been produced. In the case oI BS digital
broadcasts, signals are sent as a program stream at a Iixed rate, which is 4 Mbps Ior one
HDTV program. In the program stream oI BS digital broadcast there is a case that the
additional data stream is multiplexed, and it is desirable to record and read the data as is.
Fig.1.(b) shows the recording capacity with the data transIer rate and recording time
parameters. Two hours oI recording requires a recording capacity oI GB or more. This
capacity is about 5 times that oI DVDs, which cannot achieve this capacity by merely
increasing the recording density.
9



Fig.1 (a)



Fig.1 (b)

To obtain this capacity we have developed a number oI techniques such as: employing a
blue-violet laser, increasing the numerical aperture oI objective lens, making the optical
10

beam passing Substrate thin, 0.1 mm, and evenly thick, using an aberration compensation
method oI pickup adapted to the Substrate thickness and Dual Layer discs, improving the
modulation method, enhancing the ability oI the Error Correction circuit without
sacriIicing the eIIiciency, employing the Viterbi decoding method Ior reading signals and
improving the S/N ratio and the Inter Symbol InterIerence, using the On-Groove
recording and highly reliable Wobbling address system, developing high speed recording
Phase Change media, etc. In addition, the convenient Iunctions oI a recording device have
also been realized in the application Iormats.


These techniques are described in this paper. Furthermore, the key concepts oI the Blu-
ray Disc standard such as the reason Ior employing 0.1 mm thick Transparent Layer and a
Dual Layer recording disc will be described in each dedicated chapter. Following the
Rewritable system, a Read Only system and Write-once system has been launched.


In addition to high picture quality, the introduction oI core and new Iunctions is
indispensable Ior the spread oI the next generation package media. For example, during
the switch Irom VHS to DVD, digital recording and interactive Iunctions were newly
introduced. Consequently, it is anticipated that the speciIications oI BD-ROM will
provide a high perIormance inter-activeness and a connection to broadband services,
reIlecting the demands oI the movie industry.


ig.1(c)
11


Recently, the digital HD broadcast started, and PDP and liquid crystal displays with large
and high picture quality screens are spreading Ior home use. The recording oI HD digital
broadcasts and HD packages with BD-ROM are considered to accelerate this tendency
and expected to be the trigger Iactors Ior the rapid spread oI HD


Fig.1(d)

* 1) The spelling oI "Blu-ray" is not a mistake. The character "e" is intentionally omitted
because a daily-used term cannot be registered as a trademark.




1

Optimization of the Cover Layer Thickness Chapter-2

Roots of a 12 mm Substrate existed in the video disc
One oI advantages oI laser discs has been that they are hardly aIIected by dirt or dust on
the disc surIace since inIormation is recorded and read through a Cover Layer. The Iirst
commercial optical disc, which was the videodisc called VLP or Laser Disc, used a 1.
mm thick transparent Substrate, through which inIormation was read. This thickness was
determined Irom conditions such as:

Deterioration oI the S/N ratio due to surIace contamination was suppressed to a minimum
since it used analog recording,
A disc oI 0 cm in diameter can be molded,
The disc has suIIicient mechanical strength,
The disc is as thin as possible while satisIying the Ilatness and optical uniIormity.


The last condition is because the thinner the Cover Layer, the more easily the
perIormance oI the objective lens to converge the laser beam can be improved. This
convergence perIormance oI the objective lens is expressed by what we call NA
(Numerical Aperture), and the diameter oI a converging light is inversely proportional to
NA (Fig.(a)). Thus NA is required to be as large as possible. However, when the optical
axis oI the objective lens shiIt Irom perpendicular to the disc surIace, a deterioration oI
the convergence perIormance (aberration) occurs and its amount grows proportionally to
the cube oI NA. Since we cannot avoid discs Irom tilting to some extent Irom the optical
axis oI the objective lens due to the bending oI discs or inclination oI the mounting, it has
prevented the value oI NA Irom increasing.


1


Fig.(a)
NA Numerical Aperture) is deIined as sin(0). Where 0 is halI angle oI converging light
converged by an objective lens. Around 80 oI light energy is converged in an area with
diameter oI / NA

On the other hand, an aberration caused by a disc inclination is proportional to the
thickness oI the Cover Layer. This aberration originates by the reIraction angle error at
the Cover Layer interIace resulting Irom the disc inclination. Further, the amount oI blur
in the beam spot due to the reIraction angle error is proportional to the distance between
the disc surIace and the Iocal point


Fig.(b)
When the disc tilts reIraction angle error, which is deviation Irom ideal angle to Iorm an
ideal light spot, occurs at the disc surIace. This reIraction angle error causes aberration at
the Iocal point. Then the aberration is in proportion to the distance between disc surIace
and the Iocal point, i.e., the aberration is in proportion to thickness oI Cover Layer.
14

The Objective Lens is designed in accordance with the Cover Layer Thickness
Although the Iirst two conditions, which stated that the Cover Layer was to be a 1. mm
thick Substrate, are not applicable to CD discs, the same thickness was eventually applied
to CD discs. This was because oI the great importance placed on the interchangeability oI
objective lens. Without raising the NA value oI the objective lens, discs with a diameter
as small as 1 cm could have suIIicient capacity Ior digital audio use.


The interchangeability oI the objective lens is generally lost when the thickness oI the
Cover Layer changes. This requires more explanation. An objective lens must converge a
laser beam in nearly ideal conditions. Such a laser beam has a spherical wave Iront in the
Cover Layer and a wave Iront distorted Irom a spherical surIace in the atmosphere beIore
entering the layer. It is acceptable that the distortion oI the spherical wave surIace in the
atmosphere is made equal to that oI light that is spread Irom a point source placed at the
spot where light converges. When a point light source is directed at the inIormation
surIace oI a laser disc, a spherical wave is Iormed and spread in the Cover Layer. The
wave will be distorted when it enters the atmosphere. This is because the length oI optical
path Irom the virtual light source to the interIace oI the Cover Layer diIIers between a
beam perpendicular to the interIace and ambient beams. Since the diIIerence in optical
paths is proportional to the thickness oI the Cover Layer, the thicker the layer is, the
greater the amount oI distortion Irom the spherical surIace wave in the atmosphere

Fig.(c)
An objective lens is designed to emit light with this distorted wave Iront. Because the
ideal distortion amount diIIers with the thickness oI Cover Layer, the design oI objective
15

lens also depends on the layer thickness. This is why the conventional thickness oI the
Cover Layer tends to be Iollowed even iI the Iormat is changed.

Thickness Reduction of the Cover Layer
Although a 1. mm thickness oI the Cover Layer was adopted when the CD standard was
deIined, another approach was adopted Ior DVDs and BDs. This is because the necessary
capacity could not be achieved iI that particular thickness oI the Cover Layer was used.
ThereIore, the optimization oI the Cover Layer thickness was examined again in order to
gain more capacity.


During digital recording, there`s no need Ior anxiety about the deterioration oI the S/N
ratio oI readout signals, compared with analog recording, as long as the signals can be
read without error. In addition, the manuIacturing process oI 1 cm diameter discs is quite
diIIerent Irom that oI 0 cm discs. Consequently, there were attempts to reduce the
thickness oI Cover Layer as much as possible and increase the NA value oI the objective
lens as much as possible.


It has been regarded that one oI principal advantages oI optical discs is that the inIluence
oI dust on the disc surIace is limited because the beams are deIocused Ior dust on the
surIace oI the Cover Layer when inIormation is recorded and read. When the Cover Layer
thickness is reduced, the NA value oI objective lens can easily be increased, while this
deIocus eIIect is sacriIiced. Since the Cover Layer thickness required Ior the deIocus
eIIect is diIIerent Ior digital and analog recordings, a reexamination is needed.


The deIocusing eIIect when light passes through the Transmission Layer means that by
increasing the cross section oI incoming laser beam on the SurIace Layer, the inIluence oI
small dust is diluted within the large section area oI the beam. In other words, although
the area inIluenced by dust is enlarged to entire section oI light beam, the signal
deterioration is reduced and reading errors are prevented. On the other hand, what we call
Error Correction is generally used as a means to remove reading errors. During this
operation, some redundancy data calculated Irom a large block oI data is attached to the
1

block as error check data. AIter the block is read, the check data is inversely calculated to
correct partial errors. This can be compared to an image modiIication process where a
partial deIect oI a photograph is corrected through estimations using adjacent image data.
Through this method, errors are prevented by diluting the inIluence oI partial signal
deIects in a large-scale data block. It can be said that this Error Correction method is the
electronic version oI deIocusing by the Cover Layer. This Iurther suggests that
deIocusing by the Cover Layer partially can be replaced by Error Correction (Fig.(d)).
However, there is a problem iI the thickness oI the cover layer is made nearly zero by
raising the Error Correction capability. This is because the smallest unit oI the Error
Correction calculation is one byte, and a very small error such as one bit is practically
magniIied to a one-byte error. ThereIore, deIocusing is still desired to prevent small dust
Irom causing bit errors. The thickness oI the Cover Layer Ior that purpose is about several
tens oI micrometers.


Fig. (d)
In the DVD standard, it was decided that the thickness oI Cover Layer could be as small
as 0. mm. This thickness could be made by the disc production Iacilities oI those days,
because the same mechanical strength as a CD could be obtained by sticking two pieces
together.
For the purpose oI BDs, this thickness was reconsidered with the essential condition to
realize a GB capacity, which is necessary to record a bit stream oI Japanese BS digital
HD broadcast Ior two hours.

1


At Iirst, it was natural to consider using the same production Iacilities as DVDs, that is, to
employ a thickness oI 0. mm. However, the capacity could only reach around 1 GB by
changing the wavelength Irom red (50 nm) to the blue (405 nm). As a Iurther
disadvantage, when there`s an incline in the disc, the magnitude oI aberrations increases
in inverse proportion to the wavelength. To suppress this aberration, the NA value oI the
objective lens must be reduced. In the mass-produced record type DVD, NA is 0.5 the
maximum, even iI a tilt servo controlling the tilt angle oI the optical pickup to the disc is
used. As described beIore, the aberration when a disc is inclined is proportional to the
cube oI NA. To cancel the increase in aberrations due to shortening oI the wavelength,
NA should be reduced to around 0.55. In this case, the recording capacity is lowered to
around 10 GB, Iar smaller than the GB allowed by one oI the newest reading
technologies such as PRML. Although the narrowing oI the Track Pitch was considered
while suppressing crosstalk by recording in and between the guide Grooves, the inIluence
oI heat conduction became relatively large when the Pitch was reduced. Further, the
problem where heat conduction erased the next Track`s inIormation could not be
overcome.


Thus, we tried to solve this problem by using Dual Layer recording. However, since the
area oI the beam spot Ior an NA value oI 0. is almost double that Ior a value oI 0.85, the
power density oI the spot decreases by halI, and it has been revealed that the output
power oI blue laser requires more than 100 mW Ior Dual Layer recording. To achieve
Dual Layer recording with a readily available blue laser, it is necessary to increase the
NA value by Iurther reducing the thickness oI the Cover Layer.


To determine the thickness oI the Cover Layer Ior BD, we had to either solve all oI
abovementioned problems Ior a 0. mm thickness, or reduce the thickness. AIter all, there
was no other choice than the latter because we could not Iind solutions Ior the above-
mentioned problems.


18

As describe beIore, the required thickness oI the Cover Layer is several 10 m or more.
Considering the balance oI the ease oI production and the possibility oI reducing costs in
the Iuture, a thickness oI 100 m was adopted as a base value Ior the Cover Layer. By
making the thickness oI Cover Layer 100 m, the NA value oI the objective lens could be
raised to 0.85. For a capacity oI 5 GB, the tilt margin (0.5 degrees) was conIirmed as
nearly equal to that oI DVD.

Compatibility was Obtained Using the Difference of Wavelengths
As described above, the thickness oI the Cover Layer has been inevitably changed each
time to achieve the required capacity. ThereIore, the problem has always been how to
maintain compatibility with past standards. The most accepted method is to switch the
objective lens. This was actually carried out in the DVD equipments Ior compatibility
with CDs. At the time, many proposals to maintain the compatibility with one objective
lens were presented. It is required to have an inIrared laser with a 80 nm wavelength Ior
reading CD-Rs, and a diIIerent wavelength red laser Ior DVD (50 nm wavelength) is
utilized Ior the compatibility. Since the NA value oI the objective lens Ior CDs is 0.45,
which is smaller than that Ior DVDs (0.), an optical device was introduced which lets a
80 nm wavelength beam pass through only the part oI the objective lens corresponding
to an NA value oI 0.45 and which has a high dependency on the wavelength. This
allowed the objective lens to perIorm in optimum conditions Ior a 1. mm thick Cover
Layer. Through this method, a diIIerence oI 0.mm in the Cover Layer thickness was
absorbed within the 0.45 NA range oI the objective lens.


A red laser is also required to be installed Ior BDs in order to guarantee compatibility
with DVDs. Gold or silicone is used Ior the semitransparent Film Layer as the First Layer
oI a Dual Layer disc. These materials have a high selectivity oI wavelength; the Iormer
prevents the reading oI a Iurther layer because it absorbs blue light and the latter prevents
reading oI a Nearer Layer because it does not reIlect blue light.

Installation oI red laser with blue laser can be utilized to realize compatibility with DVD
with one objective lens like as compatibility between DVD and CD.


19

To realize compatibility between BD and DVD, a diIIerence oI 0.mm in the Cover Layer
thickness has to be absorbed the 0. NA range oI the objective lens. Although the
conditions Ior BD/DVD are more severe than Ior CD/DVD, it is a matter oI degree. In
Iact, at the 00 CE show, a prototype that achieved compatibility oI BD/DVD with one
objective lens was demonstrated. II two objective lenses are used and switched, BD/DVD
compatibility can be easily achieved.


Although the diIIerence in wavelength has been used to respond to diIIerent thicknesses
oI the Cover Layer with one objective lens, this is diIIicult to achieve with the same
wavelength. For BD, the standard oI Rewritable discs (BD-RE Standard) will be
established Iirst, and it is very natural that in the upcoming standards Ior Read-Only type
and Recordable (Write-once) type discs, a Cover Layer thickness oI 0.1 mm will be
adopted



Fig. (e)





0

lu-ray Disc format overview Chapter-3

31 lu-ray Disc format overview
Table (a) shows key parameters oI Blu-ray Disc Iormats Ior R (Recordable), RE
(REwritable) and ROM (Read Only Media). The key parameters oI R, RE and ROM such
as wave length oI the laser diode, Numerical Aperture oI the objective lens, diameter oI
the disc, thickness oI the disc and diameter oI the center hole are common, and Blu-ray
Disc Iormat uses the same signal modulation as 1PP ((1, ) RLL Parity-Preserve,
Prohibit Repeated Minimum Transition Runlength code) and ECC (Error Correction
Code) as LDC (Long Distance Code) with BIS (Burst Indicating Subcode). Because oI
speciIying the same physical parameters and the same signal processing methods, we can
employ common technologies to the optical pickup and LSI, and then it becomes easier to
keep interoperability among R, RE and ROM.

Table (a) Key parameters oI BD


BD key parameters are deIined with a good balance oI conventional and new
technologies in the best possible manner considering requests Irom the current market
demands, interchangeability, and expandability in the Iuture. Detail explanations are
described at the later chapters.

32 Physical format
The physical Iormat oI the Blu-ray disc system, which Iollows the 80 nm CD and the
50 nm DVD, will be the last optical disc system using visible light. Based on this
1

inIormation, we decided to use the Iollowing basic optical disc parameters, knowing that
the development wasn`t complete, in order to maintain the expectation oI Iuture progress:

the shortest wavelength is 400 nm,
the highest value oI NA is 0.85,
the reasonable Substrate thickness oI 0.1mm,
.
A shorter wavelength was examined, but 400 nm was Iinally selected because a shorter
wavelength causes a durability problem in the plastics oI the Substrate Incident.



Fig. (a)
As shown in Fig. (a) many plastics Ior optical discs or optical devices suddenly show a
poor transmission Iactor when under 400 nm. Furthermore, some are deteriorated by a
phenomenon similar to sunburn.


The wavelength Iluctuation during production must be considered. The tolerance is set so
that the wavelength does not Iall below 400 nm. In conventional cases, the wavelength is
temperature dependent (Ior 80 nm the dependency ca. 0. nm /deg.; Ior 50 nm ca.
0.5 nm/deg.). In particular, when recorded on a Iilm with a pigment series recording
sensitivity dependent on wavelength, a number oI developments were needed. However, a
400 nm GaN laser seems to have a wavelength with a very small temperature dependency
compared with 80 nm and 50 nm lasers.



The diameter oI the concentrated beam is deIined by the NA value oI the objective lens
and the wavelength, as in the Iollowing expression:

Beam Diameter u x /NA
wavelength, u a constant

As seen in the above expression, the larger NA is, the smaller the beam diameter,
although NA does not exceed 1.0 in the atmosphere. The largest NA values oI CDs and
DVDs obtainable during mass production were 0.45 and 0., respectively. For Blu-ray
Disc , an objective lens with an NA value oI 0.85 was Iirst made by laying two lenses,
which can be manuIactured with the technique Ior the 0. class NA, one on top oI
another. The working distance oI this lens can be guaranteed at 0.14 mm at most, and it
was oIten said that the lens would hit the disc, unlike CDs or DVDs. However, it was
only in the early stages oI the CD that using a lens with a diameter as large as 4.5 mm
was possible and that the lens never physically hit the disc considering its moving
distance. Because oI the present compact designs, the lens can sometimes hit the disc both
Ior CDs and DVDs. ThereIore, we can`t ignore the Iact that the smaller the working
distance, the higher the probability oI a hit. However, some preventive measures can be
taken by the hardware to sense danger and activate a protection circuit to prevent a hit, or
a damper can be attached in case. In addition, JVC and other manuIactures have recently
started to design and prototype a stemma lens that can secure a working distance oI
approximately 0.5 mm. In all practicality, this distance will not cause any problem.


As described later, due to this large value oI NA, the margin in the Iocus direction, which
is aIIected by the square oI NA, and the margin in the normal direction oI the Cover
Layer, which is aIIected by NA to the Iourth power, must be considered. For optical
recording, a large NA value is an advantage. Because oI smaller spot size, it can be
plainly said that the power necessary Ior recording by a Bluray system with a 400 nm
wavelength and 0.85 NA is only 1/4 oI a DVD system with a 50 nm wavelength and 0.
NA.




Fig. (b)
A comparison oI diameter and intensity distribution oI a concentrated beam on a disc
between a CD and a DVD is shown in Fig. (b). The diameter used in the comparison is
the Iirst ring diameter when the Rim condition is satisIied at 100. Since the integral oI
this waveIorm is the recording energy on an optical media, the energy is supposed to be
input to the objective lens. Assuming the recording on the media begins with the same
energy, the smaller the diameter (that is, the higher the density), the less the necessary
laser power. This is one oI reasons why Blu-ray requires only 5 mW Ior recording while
CDs and DVDs require several tens oI mW Ior a similar recording speed.


This will make room Ior recording power when Multi Layer recording or high-speed
recording is developed in the Iuture. As described beIore, one oI the Blu-ray Disc Iormat
Ieatures is its applicability to Multi Layer discs.


Fig. (c)
4

In this case, L1 is deIined by the L0 plane sandwiched a 5 m thick Space Layer, and
the thickness oI the Cover Layer L1 is 5 m. L0 Ior all Multi Layer discs is always at the
position oI 100 m depth. ReIer to the later chapter as 1.4 Multi Layer disc in detail.


Since Blu-ray Disc Iormat employs diIIerent wavelengths, NA values, and Cover Layer
thicknesses Irom CDs and DVDs, it is necessary to design and develop a compatible
pickup Ior a system interchangeable with CDs and DVDs Ior recording and playing back.
This is the same problem encountered Ior reading and writing CDs when a
recording/playing back device Ior DVDs was planned. Some successIul studies have
already been released.

Groove Format
Physical structure oI a Blu-ray disc is a Groove recording as shown the Iollowing Iigure.


Fig. (d)
There were many opinions and study results concerning this, and it would be one oI
reasons why several recording Iormats were deIined Ior DVDs. Fortunately, companies
which dealt with the three DVD recording systems have joined the Blu-ray Disc Iormat
development group; all the studies have been reexamined and one physical Iormat has
been established. Furthermore, it was quite helpIul that the most comprehensive erasable
system was introduced Iirst, unlike the cases Ior the CD and DVD in which the ROM
came Iirst and the other systems had to be adapted to it. It was natural that the master
design oI Blu-ray was made compatible Ior both home-use devices and computer
peripheral devices. ThereIore, the structure oI the Data Unit arrangement was made,
5

leaving a gap between blocks as with DVD-RAM. In addition, as in the past, to include
ROM and R media into the vision, the Groove recording system was employed instead oI
Land/Groove recording in order to respond to these three kinds oI recording media. This
idea had also been adopted Ior CD-R, RW, DVD-RW, and RW systems. One oI reasons
why discs oI diIIerent Track Pitch coexist in the Iamily is to prevent losing the Ireedom oI
the optical pickup design. At Iirst, the mastering seemed to be extremely diIIicult Ior a
0. m Track Pitch; the Groove itselI must be Iormed with about a halI the precision oI
0. m. Besides, since it would be necessary in the Iuture to make a ROM type disc
whose Pit must be Iormed by embossing, intensive developments have been carried out.
As a result, mastering by Electron Beam (EB) was enabled Iirst, and subsequently
mastering by deep UV was enabled in the 5 GB class oI Blu-ray Disc. Furthermore, the
mastering technology Ior Blu-ray using a beam with a wavelength oI 400 nm was even
developed, removing all obstacles against Groove recording. A stamping technology Ior
this density has already been established.


Furthermore Ior BD-RE and BD-R H to L Type media, taking a high NA value such as
0.85 into account, the On-Groove method was selected instead oI In-Groove. Although it
is not easy to explain this in a scalar Iield, On-Groove was selected based on simulation
results shown in the Iigure and actual experiments.


Fig. (e)


As seen in the In-Groove Iigure Ior these parameters, the power oI the recording beam
runs oII in a radial direction. A narrow Track Pitch will make the Land/Groove recording
system, which records both On-Groove and In-Groove, diIIicult.


At Iirst, there were doubts whether or not the R media could respond to an On-Groove
system. However an H to L Type R media that could respond to such a structure has
already been developed and an On-Groove system can be applied to derivative Iormats
such as CD and DVD.


Later the L to H Type R media was developed as the Iamily oI BD-R. This Type media
adopted organic dye Ior the recording material. The dye Recording Layer is made by
using the spin coating technology and In-Groove is suitable considering the
manuIacturing process. Among the dye media there are materials that irradiate heat or
explode and induce the physical change around the recorded Mark during the recording.
The Mark made by this kind oI recording mechanism tends to extend in the radial
direction and needs the In-Groove wall that can stop the Mark expansion in the radial
direction. ThereIore In-Groove recording was adopted Ior the L to H Type BD-R.

Addressing Method
Blank addressing, when Groove recording is adopted, is Iormed only by the Wobble
method. This concept is close to that employed Ior RW. Although addressing with a Pit
was Iirst examined, an addressing system without a Pit was Iinally chosen considering
that the recording density must be increased to make room Ior the header with the Pit and
that in a Multi Layer disc, the Pit address has a great inIluence on the recording in other
layers. The modulation technique Wobbling in the radial direction is based on MSK
(Minimum ShiIt Keying) and Iormatted in blocks oI 4 kB. The basic Wobble Irequency
is around 5 m, and 0 and 1 are expressed as the position where the sinusoidal wave is
modulated by the MSK rule. Although the modulation energy oI MSK is large, it is easily
inIluenced by deIects because inIormation is localized. For that, a signal called STW
(Saw Tooth Wobble) is used in Iorm oI multiplying to MSK. The STW adds secondary
harmonics to all sinusoidal waves oI Wobble, and 0 and 1 oI the address data correspond


to the polarity oI added secondary harmonics. Since the energy oI the STW signal is
distributed in space unlike that oI MSK, and detected by integration, it is robust against
partial deIects. The detection oI an address in the Blu-ray system is robust because oI the
use oI both MSK and STW.

Error Correction Method
An Error Correction method must be designed in accordance with the error distribution oI
a Cover Layer thickness oI 100 m. This operation started by statistically treating the
error distribution when the actual disc structure was subjected to a dust test and played
back, and by modeling the distribution. As a result, what came out were short bursting
errors by dust or scratches, and so-called picket codes with a structure matching long
bursting errors that sometimes occur. This is made by combining a deep interleave to a
long distance code, a kind oI Reed-Solomon Code with a size oI 4 kB, and then adding a
burst indicator called BIS.

Modulation Technique
The modulation technique oI the main channel recorded along a track is called 1PP ((1,
) RLL Parity-Preserve, Prohibit Repeated Minimum Transition Runlength code). This is
a so-called d1 code. As the examination results show, assuming that a Rewritable disc is
taken Iirst, the d1 code was employed this time around because the wide detection
window is advantageous as compared with the d code used Ior CDs and DVDs (see the
Iigure below). Further, a low Channel clock can be used when recording at high speed.


Fig. (I)
8

This data was obtained Irom a past experiment using a wavelength oI 50 nm. Although
the horizontal axis must be transIormed to the density oI Blu-ray, this tendency was
obtained when recorded and played back on a Phase Chang media. The use oI d 1 means
that non-linear Equalizer and PRML detection represented by Limit-Equalizer act more
eIIectively, and this type oI signal processing is more important in Blu-ray Disc compared
with CD and DVD. Although the mastering and embossing ROM Pit seemed diIIicult at
Iirst because the minimum Pit is shorter than that oI d, those processes were eventually
successIul thanks to the progress oI the mastering technology when the capacity is around
5 GB. The Parity preserve means that DC balance oI signals aIter modulation can be
evaluated without looking at the 0-1 series, and it is eIIective in reducing the hardware
load. Prohibit RMTR (Repeated Minimum Transition Runlength) is limited not to run
seven or more in 1PP by preventing long run oI minimum length (what represented by
101 aIter modulation).
|ReIerence|
'Optical Disc System Ior Digital Video Recording, T. Narahara et.al., Jpn. J. Appl. Phys.
9 (000)

Recording Medium and Writing Strategy
Blu-ray Disc uses Phase Change Iilm as a recording media. Phase Change Iilm is
classiIied into two types: a Iamiliar example is what`s called the GST (GeSbTe
stoichiometrical composition) type used Ior DVD-RAM and the other is the eutectic type
used Ior CD-RW, DVD-RW, and RW. Each type has its advantages in repeat recording
characteristics and high-speed recording. For Blu-ray Disc, the recording pattern was
devised to allow the application oI both types oI Phase Change Iilms. Both media were
also improved so that a recording pattern oI the same type can be used with a
predetermined density and a range oI almost the same power. An example oI recorded
pattern Ior RE v1.0 is shown in Fig. (g). It`s a waveIorm Ior recording a Pit including
two pulses oI the Channel clock, which is the smallest Pit length, and a waveIorm Ior
recording a longer Pit including Iive pulses.


9


Fig. (g)
In BD-RE V1.0, the largest recording power at Mbps is 5. mW (10.4 mW Ior dual
layers). This was explained previously where a high NA value suppressed the power at
this level, even Ior Mbps.

33 Outline of the File System Application format
The BD-RE standard consists oI three parts: Part 1 (Physical Iormat), Part (File System
Iormat), and Part (Application Iormat). Abstracts are explained here on the Application
Iormat Ior R and RE and the File system Iormat.

331 Application format for RE and R
First, the Iunction oI the Application Iormat is described.

Digital roadcasting Direct Recording Function
This recording Iunction enables the recording oI not only digital broadcast image data
without destroying the image quality, but also oI data broadcast data and multi-channel
sound data altogether.


To this end, this Iormat employs the MPEG-TS (Transport Stream), used by digital
broadcasts, as a stream type Ior recording.
Received MPEG-TS data is recorded on a disc as a Clip AV stream Iile (Fig. (h)).


0


Fig. (h)

Random Access High-speed Playback Function
To achieve a Iunction that enables random access to a desired scene in MPEG-TS and
high speed playback, tables to obtain the record position oI data corresponding to a
playback time requested by the user are provided Ior each Clip AV stream Iile. The tables
are stored in the Clip InIormation File shown in Fig. (i).

Editing and Marking Function
The PlayList Iile is provided Ior removing unnecessary scenes without copying or
transIerring recorded data like tape media, and editing material recorded on the disc
without processing the original image (Fig. (i)).

Fig. (i)
The PlayList Iile also holds bookmark inIormation to enable direct access to a Iavorite
scene.

1

Contents Search Function
In each thumbnail related Iile shown in Fig. (i), thumbnails (representing a scaled-down
version oI picture) oI the PlayList Iile and bookmarked scenes are stored. This enables the
search Ior recorded contents and bookmarks by viewing thumbnail images.

332 File System format
Main Iunctions oI the File system Iormat are described next.

High-speed Response
To shorten the response as much as possible Irom the time the disc is inserted until
recording/playing back becomes ready, Iiles other than Clip AV stream Iiles are stored
closely in certain area on the disc.

High Reliability
Even iI stored data becomes impossible to read due to scratches or dust, cases oI lost
recorded contents should be avoided as much as possible.


ThereIore, the File system Iormat has a mechanism that always copies the PlayList Iiles,
part oI the thumbnail related Iiles, Clip InIormation Iiles, etc. to another recording area
Ior backup.












Multi Layer disc Chapter-4

41 Dual Layer disc
Dual layer system is deIined Ior rewritable or recordable type oI Blu-ray discs. To
achieve the Dual Layer, many new techniques such as super-thin recording Iilms and
assembly processes are needed. It can be said that continuous developments since 1994
produced results, i.e. the Dual Layer BD 1) ). BD provides large recording capacities
such as 50GB (5GB per layer). More than 4 hours oI HDTV and more than 0 hours oI
SDTV can be recorded respectively. In addition, since recording and playback can be
done Irom one side, user does not have to turn the disc over in the drive.


Fig.4 (a)
Fig.4 (a) shows a schematic drawing oI the Dual Layer BD disc. In Blu-ray Disc Iormat,
an inIormation recording layer 100 m away Irom the laser incident plane is deIined as
the L0 Layer, and another inIormation recording layer 5 m away is called as the L1
Layer. A Phase Change material is used as the recording media because oI prior
experience with DVD-RAM, DVD-RW, etc. Fig.4 (a) Dual Layer disc
Fig.4 (b) is a comparison oI the structures oI the DVD (ROM) and BD Dual Layer discs.
With the DVD, the Rear and the Front Layers are Iormed separately on two Substrates
and then, the Substrates are attached one on top oI another with a UV-hardening resin
adhesive. Because each Substrate is 0. mm thick, a guide Groove Ior tracking can be
Iormed independently. On the other hand, in BD, the Rear Layer consisting oI Multi
Layered Iilms is Iormed on a 1.1 mm thick polycarbonate Substrate with a guide Groove
Ior tracking, and then the 5 m thickness oI Space Layer made oI resin is Iormed. The
Front Layer is Iormed on it, and Iinally the 5 m thick Cover Layer is Iormed. The
Cover Layer is too thin to Iorm a guide Groove. The Iirst technological hurdle Ior BD is
how to Iorm this guide Groove. A suggested Iorming method speciIies that a guide


Groove Ior the Front Layer is transcribed on the Space Layer side like a stamping process
).


Fig.4 (b)
The second technological hurdle Ior the Dual Layer BD disc is the Front Recording
Layer. The Iollowing conditions are speciIied Ior the Front Layer (See Fig.4 (c)).


Fig.4 (c)

(1) Transmittance
Because in the Dual Layer disc the Rear Layer is recorded through the Front Layer, it is
important that the Front Layer has a suIIiciently large transmittance. It is natural that the
Front Layer itselI should be recorded and read with certain light power; thereIore the
target value oI its transmittance is 50 to share light between both layers.

(2) The transmittance should not change before and after recording
4

Since BD assumes random access recording, sometimes the Rear Layer is recorded or
read while there are Recorded Areas and Unrecorded Areas mixed on the Front Layer. II
the transmittances change depending on whether or not the area is recorded, the intensity
oI passed beams Iluctuates and negatively inIluences the recording/reading oI the Rear
Layer. It is thereIore desirable that the transmittance does not change between recorded
and unrecorded states. Selection oI the recording Iilm material and the design oI the
Multi-Layer Iilm are important.

(3) alance of the cooling speed and crystallization speed
Phase Change material becomes amorphous aIter high-power laser heating during
recording Iollowed by quick cooling and crystallizes with middle-power heating when
being erased. To make the Front Layer semi-transparent, the reIlection Iilm and recording
Iilm tend to be thinner compared with conventional discs. However, there are problems
with the Iormer, where the cooling speed decreases aIter melting, and Ior the latter, the
crystallization speed decreases.


In addition, it is desirable Ior the Rear Layer to be the same as a Single Layer considering
the eIIiciency oI development and production. In consideration oI the above-mentioned
points, the development oI the Dual Layer disc and the BD standardization were
promoted. Fig.4 (d) shows the played-back signal (aIter Limit-Equalizer) oI the
developed 50 GB disc. The signal characteristics are comparable to a Single Layer BD
disc. The development oI the Dual Layer disc will be the key Ior Iurther enhancements oI
BD's charm as a large volume recording media.


Fig.4 (d)

5

42 Triple Layer disc and Quadruple Layer disc (DXL)

One oI Blu-ray Disc Iormat Ieatures is to be able to pile up layers as Multi Layer disc.
BDA successIully speciIied Triple Layer disc Iormat 100GB Ior R and RE and Quadruple
Layer disc Iormat 18GB Ior R in June 010. Either Iormat is named as BDXL.
BDA created BDXL SpeciIications on three basic design concepts as Iollows.

1 Used the same core parameters as SL/DL
BDXL SpeciIications use the same core parameters such as L0 Layer thickness, laser
wave length, lens NA, Track Pitch, ECC, modulation codec and Wobble address Iormat
(STW/MSK). It means a new device supporting BDXL discs can use almost the same
technologies on the optical pickup and LSI as those used in a legacy device. It helps to
realize the interoperability among Single Layer disc, Dual Layer disc, Triple Layer disc
and Quadruple Layer disc.

2 Minimized the changes to achieve high capacity
In order to achieve higher capacity, BDA (i) deIine the appropriate thickness oI each
Layer except L0 Layer Ior either the Triple Layer disc or the Quadruple Layer disc, (ii)
increase the linear density (capacity/layer) and (iii) update some data alignments oI disc
management inIormation.

3 Optimized Specifications for RE and R to reflect physical property differences of
Multi Layer Recording Stacks
Physical parameters such as reIlectivity, write power, read power etc were optimized to
reIlect its own physical property Ior either R or RE. ReIer to White Paper oI BD-RE and
BD-R in detail.









Table 4(a) shows brieI physical speciIications oI all BD Discs


Table 4(a) shows brieI parameters oI pickup and disc structure. Since the optical
parameters oI a pickup such as NA (Numerical Aperture) and wave length oI the laser
diode are common, the pick up to read the Triple Layer disc and/or the Quadruple Layer
disc can read either the Single Layer disc or the Dual Layer disc easily. All types oI BD
discs have L0 Layer at the position oI 100m depth. At the start up timing, a pick up can
seek L0 Layer oI any disc with the compensation Ior 100m spherical aberration and can
Iind the disc type which it is reading. The thickness oI the Space Layer is designed to
avoid the cross talk Irom other layers. ReIer to the White Paper R and RE in detail.


Fig.4 (e)
Fig.4 (e) shows compatibility between legacy and BDXL. A legacy device to support
5/50GB only cannot read nor write a BDXL disc. BDA has prepared a new logo as
shown to clearly distinguish BDXL discs Irom 5/50GB discs and devices Irom the
legacy ones. A device having this BDXL logo can handle a disc having the BDXL logo. It


is not mandatory, but the new device supporting BDXL disc can be easily designed to
support 5GB/50GB discs since BDXL speciIications have been developed with small
impact on pickup and LSI Ior 5/50GB discs.


Fig.4 (I)
BDXL disc can be used Ior proIessional use. Fig.4 (I) shows some application images Ior
BDXL disc. Data such as broad cast program, media data and internet data become bigger
and bigger day by day. The archiving market is rapidly growing along with this data
explosion. It is expected that BDXL disc would be useIul Ior this market.





Fig.4 (g)
Fig.4 (g) shows another example. Since the capacity oI the Ilash memory becomes bigger
and bigger, it is necessary to increase the disc capacity in order to backup this data. And
also there is a strong requirement Irom proIessional industry to have large capacity
storage devices Ior proIessional video camera and proIessional server to store huge data.
8

BDXL disc is expected to meet these requirements. In addition BDXL disc can be used
Ior the consumer market like a recorder which can record longer TV programs.


Fig.4 (h)
43 Requirements for signal quality
Table 4(b) shows requirements Ior signal quality speciIied in the Format Books.

i-MLSE*: integrated Maximum Likelihood Sequence error Estimation

The signal quality oI SL disc or DL disc is measured by Limit-Equalizer. On the other
hand, since the liner density becomes higher, the new signal quality evaluation index as i-
MLSE, which stands Ior integrated Maximum Likelihood Sequence error Estimation
using PR (1,,,,1) is applied Ior TL disc or QL disc. The speciIication required Ior each
layer oI a disc is described in Table 4(b). The values are measured by a Tester in the
Testing Center. The speciIication value oI a closer layer to the pickup
is more relaxed, because a shorter optical path has larger tolerance Ior the disc tilt.


9

There are two types oI R-SER (Random-Symbol Error Rate). R-SER speciIied in Part1
Book is required Ior a disc. When a Tester in Testing Center writes and measures a disc,
the disc has to satisIy less than .0E-4 oI R-SER. R-SER speciIied in the Drive Test
SpeciIications is required Ior a drive. When a drive writes a Test disc, the Test disc has to
satisIy less than 1.0E- oI R-SER by a Tester. The Tester mentioned above means a tester
which satisIies the test conditions speciIied in the Format Book and the Test disc is a disc
authorized by BDA Ior testing purpose.

itter measurement using the Limit-Equalizer
Generally, a playback signal reading system uses a Linear Equalizer to improve the
Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) around minimum-length Pits and to suppress Inter-Symbol
InterIerence. Disc noise exists mainly in a low-Irequency region as shown in Fig.4 (i).
When high Irequency around minimum length Pits is selectively boosted using the Linear
Equalizer, the minimum-Pit-length signal level can be markedly enhanced with only a
small increase in the total amount oI noise. That is, it is possible to improve the SNR by
using a Linear Equalizer that boosts high Irequencies. However, since an excessive
boosting oI high Irequencies causes an increase in Inter-Symbol InterIerence, the
Conventional Linear Equalizer has a limit to SNR improvement.


Fig.4 (i)
A Limit-Equalizer is capable oI boosting high Irequencies without increasing Inter-
Symbol InterIerence. Fig.4 (j) shows the conIiguration oI the Limit-Equalizer system
used in 1PP modulation. In this system, a Pre-Equalizer Iirst minimizes Inter-Symbol
InterIerence.


40

A Conventional Linear Equalizer is used as the Pre-Equalizer. The Limit-Equalizer is
located next to the Pre-Equalizer. The Limit-Equalizer has almost the same construction
as a Finite-Impulse- Response (FIR) Linear Equalizer, except that the Limiter restricts the
amplitude oI part oI playback signal. The FIR Iilter acts as a high-Irequency-boosting
Equalizer, and its gain is determined by coeIIicient 'k. The gain oI the FIR Iilter
increases with the value oI k.


Fig.4 (j)
Sample values oI the playback signal are indicated at the small-circle points in Fig.4 (k)
To understand the operation oI the Limit-Equalizer, we pay attention to the zero-cross
point and the sample values at points close to the zero-cross point. The operation oI the
Equalizer without a Limiter is as Iollows.


ReIerring to the leIt-side chart oI Fig.4 (k), iI the playback signal waveIorm is
symmetrical as indicated by the solid line, the data summed up by the Equalizer becomes
0 as expressed in Equation (1), and the zero-cross point does not move.

(-k)x(-a) (k)x(-a) (k)x(a) (-k)x(a) 0 --- (1)

However, iI the playback signal waveIorm is asymmetrical as shown in the dotted line,
the data summed up by the Equalizer does not become 0 as indicated by Equation (),
resulting in the Inter- Symbol InterIerence.

(-k)x(b) (k)x(c) (k)x(d) (-k)x(e) = 0 --- ()

41


Fig.4 (k)
II a Limiter is used to restrict the signal amplitude to around the peak amplitude level oI
the shortest wavelength signal, the waveIorm becomes symmetrical as shown by the
dotted line in the right-side chart oI Fig.4 (l). In that case, the data summed up by the
Equalizer is constantly 0, as expressed in Equation ().

(-k)x(-I) (k)x(-I) (k)x(I) (-k)x(I) 0 --- ()

The Limiter does not act on a signal with minimum-length Mark, and the Equalizer
ampliIies the signal amplitude. For a low-Irequency signal with high amplitude, the
Limiter restricts the amplitude around the center tap, which is to be added to the sum. The
Iilter gain is eIIectively decreased. Thus, the Limit-Equalizer can boost high Irequencies
without increasing Inter-Symbol InterIerence, and SNR is improved.


Since the Blu-ray Disc Iormat adopts high-density recording and 1PP modulation, the
minimum Mark length is shorter than Ior a conventional optical disc, and its SNR is
lower. Viterbi decoding in the disc drive can compensate Ior the lower SNR to achieve
good playback perIormance. However, since Viterbi decoding output is the result aIter
1/0 determination and is poor in sensitivity, it is not suitable Ior use in evaluating optical
discs in general. The jitter oI signals processed by a Linear Equalizer is dominated by the
component attributed to the noise oI disc itselI rather than the component attributed to the
quality oI Recording Marks, making it diIIicult to determine whether or not the recording
state is optimal. In this regard, a Linear Equalizer is not suitable Ior use in disc
evaluation.

4


The Blu-ray Disc system employs a Limit-Equalizer to improve the SNR and to measure
jitter Ior disc evaluation. With the Limit-Equalizer, it is possible to determine the quality
oI Recorded Marks with high sensitivity. Fig.4 (m) shows the relation oI jitter to the error
rate. Though the Limit-Equalizer has a non linear operation block inside, the relationship
oI input to output is linear and suitable Ior the measurement system.

Fig.4 (l)
In BDXL Iormats the capacity per layer is raised up to .4GB or .0GB only by
increasing the linear density. As a result, in BDXL, the Inter-Symbol-InterIerence (ISI) oI
the readout signal becomes much stronger compared to the prior Iormat that allows just
5GB per layer. ThereIore the readout signal processing needs to be improved. Also, the
prior signal quality evaluation method using the Limit-Equalizer technology has turned
out to be no longer applicable. Integrated-Maximum- Likelihood -Sequence-Error-
Estimation (i-MLSE), which is an alternative signal quality evaluation
method Ior BDXL, was newly developed and retains the stability and the precision in
such a severe ISI condition oI BDXL. The evaluation method oI i-MLSE stands on the
detection principle oI the Viterbi-Algorithm (VA) in the Partial-Response-Maximum-
Likelihood (PRML) readout signal processing. ReIer to R or RE White Paper in detail.

4


Fig.4 (m)
Random Symbol Error Rate (RSER)
ECC is designed to recover the correct data Irom the data damaged by deIects. But ECC
ability Ior correcting data in a disc is used not only Ior deIects but also Ior the random
error in a disc. In order to guarantee the ECC power Ior the user oriented deIects such as
Iingerprints and scratches, both the Random Symbol Error Rate (RSER) oI a disc and
deIects should be speciIied. Roughly more than halI oI the ECC power is reserved Ior the
user oriented deIects.


The RSER Ior judging the system margin is 4. X 10 . This value is derived Irom the
worst condition that all degradations oI a disc and a drive occur simultaneously. Thus
such a value is too high Ior the RSER value in which ECC works. The RSER oI 1.0 X 10-
was used Ior DVD. The value corresponds to a boundary condition some degradation
such as the worst radial tilt with some tangential tilt and some deIocus in a rather bad
drive. In the BD system a Viterbi decoder is located between the retrieved HF signal and
an ECC circuit. The Viterbi decoder has the ability oI the SNR improvement and it can
reduce the RSER value below 1/10. The measurement circuit Limit-Equalizer also can
improve SNR as same as the Viterbi decoder and it also can reduce the RSER value
below 1/10. For the RSER value oI a disc measured aIter the Limit-Equalizer a value oI
.0 x 10 4 is speciIied, which is 1/5 oI 1.0 x 10 . In order to measure RSER the
degradation due to the deIects should be taken out. At the development stage the
averaging in a large ECC Blocks was used Ior removing the eIIects oI deIects. But the
averaging method was not enough Ior measuring such the low RSER value. In the inner
radius there are .11 ECC Blocks within one rotation. II there is a large deIects as shown
44

in Fig.4 (n) then some 100 bytes errors are counted in every .11 ECC Blocks. That is the
reason why the measured RSER jumped up around a deIect.



Then it was decided to separate the deIects and the RSER in the measurement method.
Considering the ECC ability the allowed deIects in an ECC Block (In the speciIication the
block is called LDC Block.) is speciIied as 00 bytes in total and the maximum number
oI deIects is speciIied as . From the measured RSER the consecutive errors longer than
or equal 40 bytes are excluded. 40 bytes is the length oI the BIS (Burst Indicating Sub
code) data between BIS (8 bytes) and it corresponds to the minimum burst error length
BIS can detect. In order to detect the burst error correctly the ECC method measurement
as shown in Fig.4 (n) is used. The correct data can be obtained aIter an ECC. By using
additional circuit Ior the measurement the correct data aIter ECC is interleaved in order to
get the correct data allocation on a disc. It is compared with the data on a disc and the
erroneous symbols are identiIied.

Fig.4 (n)


There are many cases that some correct bytes exist between the erroneous bytes. Fig.4 (o)
shows an example oI an error pattern. In order to judge the 40 bytes burst error length the
Iollowing procedure was speciIied. The burst starts aIter the correct bytes longer than or
equal bytes. The error length count continues iI the correct bytes length between error
bytes is less than or equal . The error length count stops iI there appear correct bytes
longer than or equal bytes. Though the error length includes the correct bytes less than
45

or equal bytes, those correct bytes are excluded Irom the number oI the erroneous bytes.
The errors longer than or equal 40 bytes are excluded Irom both the numerator and the
denominator oI the RSER calculation. But the burst errors below 40 bytes are still
included in the erroneous bytes. Although RSER is averaged over 10000 ECC Blocks, Ior
the measurement 1000 Blocks averaging is allowed iI the disc shows good RSER.


Fig.4(o)
|ReIerences|
1) K.A. Rubin et al: Proc. SPIE 8 (1994) 4.
) K. Nagata et al: Jpn. J. Appl. Phys. 8 (1999) 19.
) S. Hayashi et al: Technical Digest oI ISOM001, Taipei, Pd- (001) 10.


















4

Contents Protection System and Interface Chapter-5

Since BD assumes that the HD contents oI digital broadcasts are being recorded,
capabilities to protect such content, iI desired, are more important than with conventional
DVDs, on which only SD contents are recorded. Thus a new contents protection system
(Advanced Access Content System Blu-ray Disc Recordable Book) optimized Ior MPEG-
TS recordings oI digital broadcasts has been adopted.


Fig.5 (a) shows the outline oI the contents protection system when digital broadcast
contents are recorded. BeIore the start oI recording, copy control inIormation within the
digital broadcast signal is detected. When copying is allowed as per the copy control
inIormation, the contents and copy control inIormation are protected and recorded on the
disc. During playback, recorded contents are decoded and outputted Irom a device on
which contents protection technology is installed, based on a copy control inIormation.



Fig.5 (a)
In the BD contents protection system, AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) with a key
length oI 18 bits has been adopted. In addition, Ior the exclusion oI illegal devices
(System Renewability) and Ior the prevention oI illegal copying, MKB (Media Key
Block) inIormation and a Disc ID which is unique to the disc are written in the disc. Each
recorder (player) has device keys, which diIIer depending on the manuIacturer or the
machine. An encryption key is generated by combining the device key and MKB.
4

ThereIore, illegal devices can be excluded by updating the MKB inIormation.
Furthermore, illegal copying is also prevented by using a Disc ID which is unique to the
disc.


In addition to such highly-secure coding during recording, by implementing the contents
protection technology in the interIace to output played-back contents, illegal copying and
retransmission to the general public through Internet can be prevented. BeIore being
outputted, contents are protected by DTCP *1) Ior MPEG-TS stream output and by
HDCP *) Ior baseband digital output. In addition, CGMS-A and Macrovision copy
control signal *) are added to the analog image signal.





















48

Hard-Coating Ior Bare Disc Chapter-

BD is much more sensitive to scratches and Iingerprints compared with DVD. Slight
scratch or Iingerprints will cause deterioration oI error rates and/or loss oI a tracking
servo control. To avoid such problems, the Iirst generation BD-RE (ver1.0) is protected
with a Cartridge case. A Bare disc, however, is desired in order to downsize a disc drive.
In addition, it is preIerred to reduce the media manuIacturing cost by making them
Cartridge-Iree.

Thus the Hard-coat technology Ior the Bare discs has been explored, aiming mainly at
scratchand Iingerprint-resistances. Hard-coatings have already been applied to some
conventional optical media such as DVD-RW. UV-curable acrylic resin has been used as
the Hard-coat in such cases. Although they have a moderate scratch-resistance, higher
hardness will be necessary Ior some BD applications. Moreover, a problem oI Iingerprint
has not been considered. ThereIore many kinds oI materials have been investigated Ior
alternative Hard-coat. As a result, it was concluded that colloidal
silica-dispersed UV-curable resin is one oI the most promising candidates, in which
scratch-resistance, optical property, and productivity are compatible
1)
.


Fig. (a)
The disc structure is shown in Fig. (a). A light-transmitting layer consists oI a 98 m
thick Cover Layer and a m thick Hard-coat. For example, both layers can be spin-
coated successively). In that case, a conventional UV-curable resin without colloidal
silica can be used as the Cover Layer.

49

Typical properties oI the Hard-coat are outlined below. In Fig. (b) jitter values oI BD-
REs are shown with (a) polycarbonate sheet, (b) conventional UV-curable Hard-coat and
(c) the new Hard-coat, whose surIaces were worn away by rubbing with steel wool. In the
disc (c), over 00 times oI abrasion did not give rise to deterioration oI the jitter value.
For general use, you will be able to obtain a secure Ieeling comparable to that oI DVDs
by the conventional Hard-coat (b), Irom a viewpoint oI scratchresistance. The new Hard-
coat (c) will be required, however, to enhance reliability oI BD systems, and will open up
wide variety oI applications (eg. long-term data archiving, use Ior camcorder, etc.).


Regarding the problem oI Iingerprints, you may accidentally put your Iingerprints on a
blank disc beIore setting it on a recorder. Generally data signals recorded over
Iingerprints contain much more errors than ROM data signals read through Iingerprints.
This is the reason that Iingerprint-resistance is viewed as more crucial property in BD-RE
or BD-R, compared to BD-ROM.


Against such a background, BD-RE requires some kind oI Protective Coating to reduce
an impact oI Iingerprint. Additionally, we should establish the way to evaluate an eIIect
oI Iingerprints to the BD system, iI BD-RE mandatory requires such a Protective Coating.
In BD-RE Iormat, anti-Iingerprint eIIect is to be quantiIied as Iollows (Fig. (c)).


Fig. (b)
50

In the evaluation method, originally prepared artiIicial Iingerprint (AFP) reagent is
necessary). AFP reagent is a suspension which mainly consists oI triolein (viscous Iatty
oil) and inorganic particle. Inorganic particles simulate insoluble ingredients and/or
waxes included in actual Iingerprint. It also has a Iunction to enhance repeatability oI
AFP test. A procedure to put AFP onto the disc surIace is based on that prescribed in JIS
K4:1994 with some modiIications. In BD-RE Iormat, SER shall be less than 4. x 10-
, which is measured Ior the data signal recorded through AFP oI prescribed level. This
AFP level was determined with reIerence to the impact oI Iingerprint to DVD-RW/RW/-
RAM. In other words, BD-RE speciIication Ior bare disc guarantees Iingerprint-
resistance, which is comparable or superior to that oI recordable DVDs.


Fig. (c)
Fig. (c) Procedure to put AFP onto BD-RE. Firstly AFP reagent is prepared by mixing
triolein, #11 oI JIS test powder 1, and methoxy propanol (5//0 in weight). Then next,
(1) AFP reagent-applied plastic (polycarbonate) Substrate is prepared by spin-coating
method (eg, 100rpm Ior 1sec, then 5000rpm Ior 1sec), and cylindrical silicone rubber is
pressed on the Substrate, thus () AFP reagent is put on an end Iace oI the silicone rubber.
The silicone rubber shall be preliminarily ground with sand paper as prescribed in JIS
K4, prior to the procedure (1). And then () the silicone rubber is pressed onto the
surIace oI the disc to be evaluated, thus (4) AFP-applied BD-RE is prepared. A bare BD-
RE speciIication requires that SER oI above AFP-applied BD shall be less than 4. x 10-
, which is measured Ior the data signal recorded through AFP.


Actually, above-mentioned new Hard-coat is easily endowed with an anti-Iingerprint
property. It is possible to upgrade Iingerprint-resistance while maintaining the original
hardness oI the silicadispersed hard-coat.
51


In Fig. (d) anti-Iingerprint properties measured Ior diIIerent Hard-coatings are shown.
AFPs were put onto the light-incident surIaces oI (a) and (c), then bERs were measured
(symbols Ior each sample are same as in Fig. (b)). It must be noted that AFP level (i.e.,
amount oI AFP) applied to this evaluation is diIIerent Irom that in BD-RE speciIication,
Ior experimental purpose.


Fig. (d)
As shown in Fig. (d), the impact oI the Iingerprint was severe in the disc (a), and
tracking was not controllable in some cases. On the other hand, the disc (c) exhibited the
bER oI around 1.0 x 10-5, which was measured Ior the data signal recorded prior to
adhesion oI AFP. In the disc (c`), antiIingerprint property was improved while
maintaining abrasion-resistance (see Fig. (d)). It exhibited adequate Iingerprint-
resistance Ior the signals recorded both beIore and aIter the Iingerprint adhesion.


Next, playability oI AFP-applied BD-RE and DVDs was veriIied on commercial disc
drives. As indicated in Tab. 1..1, BD with Hard-coat (c) shows good Iingerprint-
resistance which is equal or superior to that oI DVDs. From the aspect oI recording
motion picture, the disc (c) will allow rough handling comparable to that oI DVDs.


For all the playability results, the disc (c) may be still sensitive to Iingerprint in terms oI
error rate, which is measured Ior the data signal recorded through Iingerprints. However,
playability could be Iurther improved by using the anti-Iingerprint hard-coating oI type
(c') due to the reduced bER especially Ior writing through FP.

5

Table (a)

Ior DVD-R/-RW, and DMRE50 (Panasonic) Ior DVD-RAM.
*Respective criteria were as Iollows: OK both recording and playback normally
completed; Read NG recording operation completed (precise recording may not be
done), but not playable; R/W NG neither recording nor playback completed.


As shown in Fig. (e), the amount oI AFP decreased drastically in discs (a), (c) and (c`),
in this order. It implies a clear correlation between the amount oI AFP and resulting
bERs. In Fig. (I), shown is bER dependency on the area ratio oI AFP. As can be seen
Irom the Iigure, error rate depends almost entirely upon AFP area ratio, and is
independent oI the nature oI the disk surIace. In Figure (d) bERs measured aIter AFP
adhesion. Blue bars represent bERs oI the signals written beIore AFP adhesion, and red
ones indicate bERs Ior the signals recorded aIter AFP adhesion. other words, the disks (c)
and (c`) are endowed with the property to aIIord lower Iingerprint area ratio compared to
the disc (a), when you apply Iingerprints oI the same level.

Fig. (e)
5



Fig. (I)
Although only 'Iingerprint repellency was described in this article, the discs (c) and (c`)
are superior to the disc (a) also in terms oI 'Iingerprint removability. It should be noted
that the new Hard-coat (c`) combined with the spin-coated Cover Layer has good
production ability and will achieve the production cost comparable to that oI recordable
DVDs.



54

REFERENCES:
1) N. Hayashida, H. Hirata, T. Komaki, M. Usami, T. Ushida, H. Itoh, K. Yoneyama,
and H. Utsunomiya, Jpn. J. Appl. Phys., 4, 50-5 (00).
) T. Komaki, H. Hirata, M. Usami, T. Ushida, N. Hayashida, H. Inoue, T. Kato, H.
Shingai, and H. Utsunomiya, Jpn. J. Appl. Phys., 41, 9-9 (00).
) N. Hayashida, H. Itoh, K. Yoneyama, T. Kato, K. Tanaka, and H. Utsunomiya,
Proc. oI SPIE Vol. 509, 1-8 (00).
4) Digital Transmission Content Protection: A content protection technology
developed by Iive companies: Hitachi, Intel, Panasonic, Sony, and Toshiba. The
speciIication is proprietary, and implementing DTCP requires a license.
5) High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection: A content protection technology
developed by Intel. The speciIication is proprietary, and implementing HDCP requires a
license.
) Macrovision is a content protection technology developed by Rovi Corporation.
The speciIication is proprietary, and utilizing Macrovision requires a license.