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Cassette tapes were all the rage in the 1980s, but were soon cast aside in favour of CDs, MP3s, cloud services and other forms of digital storage that could hold increasing amounts of data. 

But now, by tweaking how it produces the magnetic tape used in these cassettes, Sony has created a way for the iconic material to make a comeback. 

The Japanese firm has developed tape for businesses that can store up to 185TB of data - 74 times the capacity of traditional tapes and the equivalent of 3,700 Blu-rays.

By tweaking how it produces the magnetic tape used in traditional cassettes, stock image pictured, Sony has created a way for the iconic material to make a comeback. The Japanese firm has developed tape that can store up to 185TB of data - 74 times the capacity of current tapes and the equivalent of 3,700 Blu-rays

It could, in theory, be used by anyone but has been designed specifically for organisations that need to store large amounts of data.

Magnetic tapes with a coating of magnetic powder are currently used as the mainstream form of tape storage media - with a recording capacity of 2.5TB.

Previously, if companies wanted to increase this capacity, they'd need to use technology to shrink the size of the magnetic particles on which data is stored.

This can be a tricky and expensive process, and in many cases, isn't cost effective.

Sony's new tape consists of a soft magnetic underlayer with a smooth surface created using a vacuum thin film forming technique called sputter deposition. 

Sputter deposition involves shooting argon ions onto polymer film to produce layers of extremely fine crystal particles in a uniform pattern, just 5 micrometres thick.  

Until now, when the sputter method was used to create this layer of magnetic particles on a polymer film, it changed the shape and layout of the crystal and made the underlayer feel rough.

Sony's new tape consists of a soft magnetic underlayer with a smooth surface, created using a vacuum thin film forming technique called sputter deposition. Sputter deposition involves shooting argon ions onto polymer film, pictured left, to produce layers of fine crystal particles in a uniform pattern, pictured top right

Sony's magnetic layer of fine particles has an average size of 7.7 nanometres, pictured. When the magnetic tape created using this technology was measured it was found to have a recording density of 148GB per square inch. This is five times the 35TB capacity of the tape developed by FujiFilm and IBM in 2010

This variation in size restricted how much data could be stored on it. 

By optimising the sputter technique, as well as developing a smooth, soft magnetic layer, Sony made it possible to shrink the crystals while keeping their shape.  

When Sony's magnetic tape was measured it was found to have a recording density of 148GB per square inch - equivalent to approximately 74 times the capacity of traditional coated tape media used for data storage.

This is also five times the 35TB capacity of the cassette developed by FujiFilm and IBM in 2010. 

Sony said it will continue to work towards getting this next-generation storage ready to sell, as well as develop the technology to make it even more efficient, 'with the aim of increasing recording densities even further.'