Japanese firms stay agressive

Sharp tapped its previous work on epitaxial growth technology for infrared and red lasers to reduce the number of cracks in the GaN crystalline used for the blue lasers, according to a spokesman.

The combination of the chip design and the epitaxial growth technology enabled a laser with a 10,000-hour lifetime and 168-mW power consumption, the spokesman said. The company has a startup capacity of 150,000 units per month. Sharp is also developing a high-power, pulsed-wave blue laser that will output 130 to 210 mW.

Nichia Corp., currently the sole merchant supplier of blue lasers, has not disclosed its production capacity or ramp-up plans. "We are supplying the laser diodes to limited customers, so we have not been publicizing details of our production plan, but we are preparing a big expansion in production," said a Nichia spokesman.

Both next-generation DVD formats—HD-DVD and Blu-ray Disc, the format chosen for the PS3—rely on blue-laser diodes. All HD-DVD and Blu-ray products except Sony's currently employ Nichia's laser diodes.

Sony earlier this year pushed back the U.S. introduction of a Blu-ray Disc player from July to autumn. The player has still not hit the market, and Sony has not readjusted its timetable.

Toshiba is the sole HD-DVD hardware supplier at present, is offering players, recorders and PC drives and supplying a drive for Microsoft's Xbox 360 on an OEM basis. Shinichi Ito, senior manger of the digital AV division of Toshiba, said the company has had no laser diode supply problems and is "not worried about the supply at all."

Toshiba is working on developing in-house blue-laser capability, as are Sanyo Electric Co. Ltd. and NEC Corp. None of the three has commenced production.