Sanyo's Blue Laser May Boost Optical Storage

Sanyo Electric has developed a new type of blue laser for use in next-generation optical disc recorders that is easier and cheaper to produce than existing types, the company said Wednesday.

The new technology and other improvements could enable next-generation discs to hold an estimated 25GB to 30GB of data per layer per side--that's five to six times the capacity of existing DVDs, according to Sanyo.

Unlike existing blue lasers, which are produced on a substrate of sapphire, Sanyo's device is based on a gallium nitride substrate, according to Minoru Sawada, manager of Sanyo's optical devices unit. The new production method also cuts down by half the size of the device and produces a laser beam with less optical noise, Sawada said at a news conference in Tokyo.

Today's CD and DVD players use lasers that output red light in wavelengths between 800 nanometers (nm) and 630 nm, but next-generation optical disc systems with capacities several times greater than current DVD discs possess will require shorter-wavelength lasers. As the wavelength of light produced gets shorter, the spot the laser beam makes on the disc also shrinks, so less disc space is needed to store each bit of data.

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Much of the technology required to bring such systems to market already exists and is ready for commercial production. But developing a stable, reliable blue laser has been the largest sticking point facing engineers.

Today, samples from blue laser makers cost around $1000 for a single device--a price that must tumble before commercial products based on blue lasers become realistic propositions.

Sanyo says its new laser remains some time away from mass production, but if the company hits its target date of April 2003, that should dovetail nicely with the plans of several consumer electronics makers for launching such recorders. In February, a group of nine major electronics companies announced an agreement on basic specifications for a next-generation recorder, named Blu-ray, that requires such a 405-nm laser.

Sanyo plans to begin shipping samples of its blue laser to customers in the second half of this year.