COMPACT DISC MANUFACTURING

Raw Materials
A compact disc is a deceptively simple looking device considering the technology
required to make it. CDs consist of three layers of materials:

A base layer made of a policarbonato plastic.

A thin layer of aluminum coating over the polycarbonate plastic.

A clear protective acrylic coating over the aluminum layer.

Some manufacturers use a silver or even gold layer instead of the aluminum layer
in the manufacture of their compact discs.

Design
The compact disc is designed strictly according to the standards established by
Sony and Philips in order to maintain universal compatibility. A CD is 4.72 inches
(120 millimeters) in diameter and .047 inches (1.2 millimeters) thick. The
positioning hole in the middle is .59 of an inch (15 millimeters) in diameter. A CD
usually weighs around .53 of an ounce (15 grams).
A standard CD can store up to 74 minutes of data. However, most CDs contain
only about 50 minutes of music, all of which is recorded on only one side of the CD
(the underside). The recorded data on the CD takes the form of a continuous spiral
starting from the inside and moving outward. This spiral or track consists of a
series of indentations called pits, separated by sections called lands. A tiny laser
beam moving along the track reflects light back to a photo sensor. The sensor sees
more light when it is on a land than when it is on a pit, and these variations in light
intensity are converted into electrical signals that represent the music originally
recorded.

The Manufacturing
Process
Compact discs must be manufactured under very clean and dust free conditions in
a "clean room," which is kept free from virtually all dust particles. The air in the
room is specially filtered to keep out dirt, and occupants of the room must wear
special clothing. Because an average dust particle is 100 times larger than the
average pit and land on a CD, even the smallest dust particle can render a disc
useless.

Preparing the disc master

1 The original music is first recorded onto a digital audio tape. Next, the audio
program is transferred to a 3/4-inch (1.9 centimeters) video tape, and then data
(called subcodes) used for indexing and tracking the music is added to the audio
data on the tape. At this point, the tape is called a pre-master.

2 The pre-master tape will be used to create the disc master (also called the glass
master), which is a disc made from specially prepared glass. The glass is polished
to a smooth finish and coated with a layer of adhesive and a layer
of photoresist material. The disc is approximately 9.45 inches (240 millimeters) in
diameter and .24 of an inch (six millimeters) thick. After the adhesive and
photoresist are applied, the disc is cured in an oven.

3 Next, both the pre-master tape and the disc master are put into a complex laser
cutting machine. The machine plays back the audio program on the pre-master
tape. As it does so, the program is transferred to a device called a CD encoder,
which in turn generates an electrical signal. This signal powers a laser beam, which
exposes or "cuts" grooves into the photoresist coating on the glass disc (the disc
master).

4 The grooves that have been exposed are then etched away by chemicals; these
etched grooves will form the pits of the CD's surface. A metal coating, usually silver,
is then applied to the disc. The disc master now contains the exact pit-and-land
track that the finished CD will have.

Electroforming

5 After etching, the disc master undergoes a process called electroforming, in

which another metal layer such as nickel is deposited onto the disc's surface. The
phrase "electro" is used because the metal is deposited using an electric current.
The disc is bathed in an electrolytic solution, such as nickel solphamate, and as the
electric current is applied, a layer of metal forms on the disc master. The thickness
of this metal layer is strictly controlled.

6 Next, the newly applied metal layer is pulled apart from the disc master, which is
put aside. The metal layer, or father, contains a negative impression of the disc
master track; in other words, the track on the metal layer is an exact replica, but in
reverse, of the track on the disc master.

7 The metal father then undergoes further electroforming to produce one or more
mothers, which are simply metal layers that again have positive impressions of the
original disc master track. Using the same electroforming process, each mother
then produces a son (also called a stamper) with a negative impression of the
track. It is the son that is then used to create the actual CD.

8 After being separated from the mother, the metal son is rinsed, dried, polished
and put in a punching machine that cuts out the center hole and forms the desired
outside diameter.

Replication

9 The metal son is then put into a hollow cavitya dieof the proper disc shape in
an injection molding machine. Molten polycarbonate plastic is then poured into this
die to form around the metal son. Once cooled, the plastic is shaped like the son,
with the pits and groovesonce again in a positive impression of the original disc
master trackformed into one side.