BW2029 SEP 05,2000 4:58 PACIFIC 07:58 EASTERN ( BW)(NJ-NEC-RESEARCH-INSTITUTE)(NIPNY) Discovery of New `Extraordinary Magnetoresistance Materials' Holds Potential To Dramatically Increase Capacity of Data Storage Science/Technology Editors PRINCETON, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 5, 2000-- Breakthrough by NEC Research Institute Also Offers Widespread Applications for Cellular, Automotive, and Many Other Technologies In the near future, magnetic disk drives may have the capacity to store up to 100 times more data with the help of new composite materials discovered by researchers at the NEC Research Institute (NECI). The new materials exhibit dramatically high levels of magnetoresistance (MR) and have the potential to significantly increase the performance of magnetic sensors used in a wide variety of other important technologies, ranging from wireless communications to automobiles and consumer electronics. The complete findings of the NEC Research Institute are published in the current issue of the scientific journal, Science. The newly discovered materials exhibit what has been termed by NECI as Extraordinary Magnetoresistance (EMR), which, according to Princeton, New Jersey-based NECI researchers, is up to 400 times the magnetoresistance, at the relevant magnetic fields, of materials being used for comparable applications today. NECI's EMR materials have the potential for rapid application to the read heads of disk drives, which, together with the write heads and disk materials, determine the overall capacity, speed and efficiency of magnetic recording and storage devices. EMR composite materials will be able to respond up to 1,000 times faster than the materials used in conventional read heads. "The use of EMR devices in high-density recording represents a new approach to a highly complicated technological problem," said Dr. Stuart Solin, a Fellow with the NEC Research Institute and leader of the research team that discovered the EMR materials. "There is a huge effort on the part of many capable individuals to push conventional read-head sensor technology from the current 13 Gigabits of data per square inch to 100 Gigabits per square inch. The discovery of these new nonmagnetic composite materials has the potential to significantly advance magnetic storage technology and bring the industry closer to its long range target of a disk drive that will store a Terabit, or 1,000 Gigabits, of data per square inch. A single 3.5" disk that can hold 4 feature length films today, could have the capacity to hold a personal library of multimedia data in the near future," Dr. Solin said. Dr. Solin explained that the magnetoresistance of materials refers to the percentage change of electrical resistance in the presence of a magnetic field. Most materials exhibit very small MR even at high fields. Copper, for example, shows an MR of order 0.1 percent at room temperature even for fields thousands of times larger than the earth's magnetic field, HE. During the past decade, scientists have fabricated thin film metallic structures exhibiting room temperature giant magnetoresistance (GMR) of order 20 percent at 100HE. Even though this change may seem small, such materials have important technological applications in the area of high-density magnetic recording. Another class of recently developed materials exhibits what is generally referred to as colossal magnetoresistance (CMR) with MR values as high as 100,000 percent at high field (40,000HE) and at very low temperatures (- 200C). These materials, however, have very low MR at room temperature. The new materials discovered by NECI exhibit an EMR at room temperature of the order 1,000,000 percent at high fields. More importantly, the new EMR materials give record values of room temperature magnetoresistance at low and moderate fields. Surprisingly, while the sensitivity of GMR and CMR materials to magnetic fields arises from the fact that these materials are magnetic in nature, the new NECI composites are made from nonmagnetic semiconducting and metallic components. The new EMR materials result from NECI's discovery that embedding a highly conducting metal, such as gold, into a thin disk of a nonmagnetic semiconductor, such as indium-antimonide (InSb), boosts the magnetoresistance and offers a number of other advantageous properties. These include very high thermal stability, the potential to be manufactured at much lower unit costs than conventional sensors, and the capability of operating at speeds up to 1,000 times higher than sensors fabricated from magnetic materials. One characteristic of EMR sensors is that they require at least three electrical contacts while conventional sensors require only two. Dr. Solin added: "One can easily envision countless other applications of EMR sensors in areas such as consumer electronics, the wireless telephone industry and the automobile industry, all of which utilize many magnetic sensors in their products. Tomorrow's EMR sensors will deliver dramatically greater sensitivity and will be considerably less expensive to produce. And it is quite possible that we have yet to conceive of the most significant aspects of this technology." Dr. Solin credits the 30-year-old work of scientists C.M. Wolfe, G.E. Stillman and J.A. Rossi for stimulating the discovery of EMR materials. NEC will pursue licensing agreements as well as explore the development of possible devices that make use of its EMR technology. The research was conducted in collaboration with Dr. Tineke Thio and Mr. D.R. Hines of NEC Research Institute and with Prof. J.J. Heremans of Ohio University. About NEC Research Institute NEC Research Institute, founded in 1988 and based in Princeton, conducts basic research in the areas of computer and physical sciences. Its major research elements include Web computing; robust computing; intelligence; vision and language; devices; materials; optics; nano physics; biophysics, theoretical computer sciences and physics. For more information about the Institute, please visit its Web site at http://www.neci.nj.nec.com. About NEC Corporation NEC Corporation (NASDAQ: NIPNY) (FTSE: 6701q.l) is a leading provider of Internet solutions, dedicated to meeting the specialized needs of its customers in the key computer, network and electron device fields through its three market-focused in-house companies: NEC Solutions, NEC Networks and NEC Electron Devices. NEC Corporation, with its in-house companies, employs more than 150,000 people worldwide and saw net sales of 4,991 billion Yen (approx. US$48 billion) in fiscal year 1999-2000. For further information, please visit the NEC home page at: http://www.nec-global.com Graphics available --30--bpm/cgo* CONTACT: Phillips and Associates, Inc. Scott Phillips, 312/943-8858 phillips@sphillips.com or NEC USA, Inc. Kara Gerry, 631/753-7341 gerryk@necusa.li.nec.com KEYWORD: NEW JERSEY INDUSTRY KEYWORD: COMPUTERS/ELECTRONICS