About ISOM

Optical memories use a laser light source to record and play back information. There are now optical memories capable of storing a great amount of information at a high density. The optical disk in particular has been promoted due to its removability, high reliability and low cost-per-byte. Many products using optical disks such as the CD, the CD-ROM, the Laser Disc, the writable disk, the rewritable disk and the DVD have been appeared in market.

Our IT-based society will require higher data density and data-transfer rate in optical memories. In order to meet these demands, work on holographic memories, super-resolution techniques, multi-level recording, near-field optical recording, blue laser recording, etc is ongoing.

The International Symposium on Optical Memory (ISOM) is concerned with the materials, the physics, and the technology of optical memories and provides an opportunity to share the latest information in these fields with the international research community.

Scope of the symposium

  1. Basic Theory and Physical Optics
  2. Media and Material Science
  3. Drive Technologies and Signal Processing
  4. Components and Nano Fabrication
  5. Testing Methods and Devices
  6. Systems and Applications
  7. High Density Recording
  8. New World - Other Future Science and Technology available to Information Strage

Fields of the Symposium

  1. Information System
  2. Optical Technology
  3. Memory Technology

History

The first Optical Memory Symposium (SOM) was held in November, 1985, supported by the Japan Society of Applied Physics (JSAP), the Magnetics Society of Japan (MSJ), and the Optoelectronic Industry and Technology Development Association (OITDA). ISOM was launched in 1987 to provide a forum for researchers both in Japan and abroad, in cooperation with the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the Optical Society of America (OSA), the International Society for Optical Engineering (SPIE) and so on.

Until 1994, SOM and ISOM were convened on alternating years but since 1995 ISOM has been held every year. Sometimes it has been held with other conferences, once for three years with the topical meeting on Optical Data Storage (ODS), also once with the Magneto-Optical Recording International Symposium (MORIS).  ISOM'07 is the 17th.

(Details)

December, 1985

SOM'85 at Toranomon Pastoral (Tokyo)

December, 1986

SOM'86 at Toranomon Pastoral (Tokyo)

September, 1987

ISOM'87 at Sunshine Prince Hotel (Tokyo)

September, 1988

SOM'88 Casals Hall (Tokyo)

September, 1989

ISOM'89 International Conference Center Kobe (Hyogo)

July, 1990

SOM'90 at Makuhari Messe (Chiba)

October, 1991

ISOM'91 City Educational and Cultural Center, Sapporo (Hokkaido)

July, 1992

SOM'92 at Pacifico Yokohama (Kanagawa)

July, 1993

ISOM/ODS'93 Maui Island (Hawaii)

July, 1994

SOM'94 International conference hall of Waseda University (Tokyo)

August, 1995

ISOM'95 City Cultural Hall, Kanazawa (Ishikawa)

July, 1996

ISOM/ODS'96 Maui Island (Hawaii)

October, 1997

MORIS/ISOM'97 Yamagata International Convention Center (Yamagata)

October, 1998

ISOM'98 Auditorium AIST Tsukuba Research Center (Ibaraki)

July, 1999

ISOM/ODS'99 Kauai Island (Hawaii)

September, 2000

ISOM2000 Chitose Institute of Science and Technology (Hokkaido)

September, 2000

ISOM2000 Satellite Symposium Kyongju (Korea)

October, 2001

ISOM'01 The Grand Hotel (Taipei)

November, 2001

ISOM'01 Satellite Symposium Toyama (Toyama)

July, 2002

ISOM/ODS'02 Hawaii Island (Hawaii)

November, 2003

ISOM'03 Nara-Ken New Public Hall (Nara)

October, 2004

ISOM'04 Jeju (Korea)

July, 2005

ISOM/ODS'05 Waikiki, Honolulu (Hawaii)

October, 2006

ISOM'06 Takamatsu (Kagawa)

October, 2007

ISOM'07 Pan Pacific Hotel (Singapore)

July, 2008

ISOM/ODS'08 Hilton Waikoloa Village, Waikoloa (Hawaii)

October, 2009

ISOM'09 Nagasaki (Nagasaki)

October, 2010

ISOM'10 Parkview Hotel, Hualien (Taiwan)

July, 2011

ISOM/ODS'11 Lihue, Kauai (Hawaii)

Numbers of participants

JJAP publication

ISOM Symposium papers of each ISOM were published on Supplements (ISOM'87, ISOM'89) and Special Issues (ISOM'91-ISOM/ODS'05) of the Japanese Journal of Applied Physics (JJAP) in addition to the technical digest available at the symposium. The authors who presented papers at the symposium were allowed and strongly recommended to submit their papers for publications on the JJAP Special Issue for ISOM. Submitted manuscripts were referred as original papers according to JJAP special standards. JJAP Special Issues were distributed to approximately 3,200 readers worldwide.

ISOM in Asia

The ISOM committees approved a satellite meeting since 1998. The first satellite meeting was the International Symposium on Advanced Optical Storage (ISAOS'98) which was held at Taipei, Taiwan in 1998. It showed the vital activities about the optical memory technologies and industries in Asia. The satellite meeting of ISOM2000 was held at Seoul, Korea.

The ISOM committees are planning to hold ISOM symposiums periodically in three areas, like Japan, Asian countries other than Japan, and ISOM/ODS joint symposium in Hawaii.

[Guidelines for hosting ISOM in Asian countries]