Sharp plans to boost red DVD laser production
The growing popularity of DVD players, particularly in China, is causing a shift in the semiconductor laser market. Japanese companies such as Sharp, which together with rivals Sony and Sanyo dominates the production of lasers for CD and DVD applications, are moving away from infrared devices and toward red lasers.
Sharp now produces about 3 million red lasers a month, and its plans call for an increase to somewhere in the range of 4.5-6 million units a month. Production of high-quality lasers suitable for DVD recorders will total more than 1 million a month. However, as infrared laser production declines, Sharp s total production of semiconductor lasers will remain at around 11-12 million units a month during the coming year.
Sharp plans to shift all production of red semiconductor lasers to its Mihara plant in Hiroshima Prefecture, which opened in May 2002. The company s Nara plant will stop making red lasers, but will continue to perform finishing and processing, along with a plant in Indonesia.
Mitsubishi Electric develops 200 mW DVD laser
In related news, Mitsubishi Electric Corp. has developed a red semiconductor laser that can be used to write to DVDs at a speed of 16x. By modifying the design and materials used to produce the laser, Mitsubishi Electric increased its light output to 200 mW. Conventional DVD recorders with write speeds of 4x use laser with a power of 100 mW.
Compatible with both write-once DVD-R and DVD+R formats, the high-output laser can write two hours worth of image data to a DVD in just three and a half minutes, a quarter the time required by existing devices. Mitsubishi Electric aims to begin shipments in 2004.
