An electret floppy disk for digital information storage

The present work describes the possibility of digital information storage by means of electrostatic fields. In a set of experiments we focused on the realization of a technologically simplified setup which can be improved towards industrial application. Silicon nitride–silicon oxide–silicon (NOS) structures, used as storage medium, were charged by an applied voltage pulse between a metal tip positioned on the wafer and the silicon substrate. A reading unit with the ability of non-contact charge detection was constructed and used in a modified floppy disk drive to demonstrate the possibility of data access in the investigated NOS structures. Despite the necessity of further improvements, the simplicity of the demonstrated method is promising for digital data storage.