Toshiba has developed a new manufacturing process for the HD DVD-RAM rewritable format, enabling easier mass production of the new discs.

The HD DVD-RAM format has been proposed as the next generation Random Access medium featuring defect management algorithms in order to offer data storage reliability. The HD DVD-RAM discs will be available in single layer versions at 20 GB total capacity. Compared with the single layer HD DVD-R format (15GB), the HD DVD-RAM offers extra storage capacity due to the "land and groove" recording method used, rather than a "groove only" recording method used in the recordable/rewriteble versions.

The DVD forum currently supports three HD-DVD formats: read only, write once and rewritable. Toshiba's Corporate Research & Development Center (CRDC has developed a thin-film manufacturing process suitable for mass production of rewritable disks. The key is SiOC film consisting of silicon oxide and carbon with low refractive index.

Toshiba claims that the newly developed thin-film formation process is more than three times faster than the conventional process. This would enable manufacturing throughput for HD-DVD RAM disks comparable to that for the current rewritable DVD disks.

The development of SiOC film with low refractive index is expected to contribute to mass production of single layer HD-DVD RAM rewritable disks. However, the commercialization of the new HD DVD recordable/rewritable formats should not be expected before the end of the year.