• Cyanine is a non-systematic name of a synthetic dye family with the common molecular formula:                            ArN⁺=CH[CH=CH]_n=NAr
• Cy3 and Cy5 are dyes used in a wide variety of biological applications including comparative genomic hybridization and in gene chips, which are used in transcriptomics.
• Cy3 is red and Cy5 is far-red.

Properties

• Chemical and Physical and properties of the dye/disc components are also very important to good disc performance:
  􀂄 A) Solubility / Wettability
  􀂄 B) Melting point and Decomposition Temperature
  􀂄 C) Heat of Decomposition
  􀂄 D) Stability to Heat, Humidity and UV bombardment
  􀂄 E) Compatibility with Reflector Material (sulphur or halogens)
  􀂄 F) Dye film thickness – molecular size
• Azo dyes give bright, high intensity colours, much more so than the next most common dye class (anthraquinones).  They have fair to good fastness properties, but not so good as the carbonyl and phthalocyanine classes.  Their biggest advantage it their cost-effectiveness, which is due to the processes involved in manufacture.

Technology

• In dye based media the dye forms a   homogenous amorphous thin film.  The recording mechanism is based on the dye absorbing energy from the laser and undergoing thermal degradation with a change in the refractive index. 
• A leading provider of innovative, technologically advanced data storage products and services has announced the development of blue-violet laser write once, read many (WORM) optical discs, produced using an exclusive new organic dye coating technology. The new discs are the world’s first organic dye coated blue-violet laser WORM optical discs for use in the next generation of video recording and data storage products.

Market

• It was predicted that the overall global demand for DVD-R discs will reach 4.5 billion by 2005. Since one kilogram of dye can produce 300,000 discs, the global market for DVD-R dye will total more than 15 billion NT dollars.
• The organic dye used for the recording layer in a DVD-R disc accounts for 50% of the overall product cost. Most of the relevant technologies are owned by Japanese companies, and local companies need to pay high royalty costs.