"The introduction of the high-power 35-mW laser will advance the next-generation DVD greatly," said Sanyo president Yukinori Kuwano. Sanyo will offer first samples of the 35-mW part in May, priced at almost $1,700 apiece.

Sanyo's 35-mW device is one of the highest-power blue-violet lasers announced to date. Last December, Nichia Corp. and Sony Corp. said they would work together to develop a 100-mW laser for use in upcoming Blu-ray disk systems.

Sanyo will build its blue-violet laser on a gallium nitride (GaN) substrate rather than a sapphire substrate, the substrate of choice for Nichia. Sanyo also employs an ion implantation layer that contributes to the precise control of the laser's emission, resulting in the kind of low-noise, low-current laser required for optical disk systems, Sanyo said.

Sanyo's part features a wavelength of 405 nanometers, threshold current of 40 mA and operating current of 75 mA. Since it does not have insulating sapphire substrate, it has instead a structure with electrodes on the top and bottom, which reduces chip size by about a half, Kuwano said.

The structure is different from Nichia's sapphire-based lasers, but Sanyo can make it without infringing any Nichia patents, Kuwano said.

Sanyo announced a 5-mW blue-violet laser that uses the same structure last March, and is now sampling that part.

Anticipating higher demand for blue-violet lasers, other manufacturers are also preparing for volume production. Aside from the Nichia/Sony partnership, Sharp Corp. will begin production of blue-violet lasers by the end of this year at a new fabrication facility, which is under construction. And Rohm Co. Ltd. is developing a silicon carbide-based laser with Cree Inc.