Japanese electronics giant Pioneer claims to have developed a 16-layer optical disc capable of storing 400 gigabytes of data.

The new system can hold as much information – roughly 25GB – in each layer as Blu-Ray optical disc, Pioneer said. This new storage technology will greatly reduce the number of discs firms use, it added.

The problems associated with multilayer optical discs, such as the difficulty in obtaining good signal-to-noise ratio from the different recording layers, has been solved though using an innovative disc structure. This helps reduce crosstalk from adjacent layers. Pioneer also employed a light-receiving element that can read out weak signals at a high signal-to-noise ratio in the optical pick-up mechanism, the company said.

The objective lens used in the new system has similar specifications to those used in Blu-Ray discs, so it is possible to maintain compatibility between the new 16-layer optical disc and the BD discs, said Pioneer.

Pioneer will present further details of its research at the International Symposium on Optical Memory and Optical Data Storage 2008 from 13 July in Waikoloa, Hawaii.