Nichia plans to mass-produce violet lasers by next April....
Monday, June 11, 2001
Nichia To Mass-Produce Violet-Color Lasers For DVD Recording
TOKUSHIMA (Nikkei)--Nichia Corp., a major fluorescent substance maker, will mass-produce violet-color semiconductor lasers with a maximum output of 30 milliwatts from next April, the company announced Monday.
Monthly output of the lasers, which can be used to write data into next-generation DVDs, is expected to reach 100,000 units. This will make the Tokushima Prefecture-based company the first firm to mass-produce such lasers, according to industry sources.
The lasers will feature a wavelength of only 405 nanometers, as well as the capacity to generate a stable 30-milliwatt output, which is necessary to write data into DVDs.
While the price of the lasers has yet to be determined, a company official said, "The price for large-lot users will likely be held down to 5,000 yen or less per unit by fiscal 2003 through improved production efficiency."
The shorter wavelength a semiconductor laser has, the more data it can squeeze into a DVD.
A semiconductor laser with a short wavelength and high output is said to be capable of raising the 4.7-gigabyte memory capacity currently available on DVDs to 20-25 gigabytes -- a capacity allowing more than 2 hours of high quality video recordings.
(The Nihon Keizai Shimbun Tuesday morning edition) |
