Sharp Corp had a meeting on technologies relating to blue-violet and red semiconductor laser diodes. It explained the market conditions and the output growth as well as its efforts to enhance the laser power and reduce the module size.
Sharp expects that markets for high-power red laser diodes for use in DVD recorder players, low-power blue-violet laser diodes for use in Blu-ray Disc players and high-power blue-violet laser diodes for use in recorder players will all grow significantly in the future.
The company forecast that 22 million low-power blue-violet diodes will be sold globally in 2008. Also, it estimates that the sales of high-power blue-violet diodes will reach 2.2 million units as the market for Blu-ray compatible products started to rise from the 2007 Christmas season. Annual sales of low-power and high-power products are expected to exceed 100 million units in 2010 and 2012, respectively.
Sharp forecasts that the annual sales of high-power red laser diodes will exceed 300 million pieces in the global market in 2009. The company expects that the number of products supporting not just DVD recording/playback but also Blu-ray Disc playback or Blu-ray Disc recording/playback will increase.
Driven by the increase of Blu-ray compatible products, the global sales of high-power red laser diodes are expected to reach 400 million pieces in 2013.
In order to meet the growing market demand, Sharp will expand the production scale of laser diodes. The company plans to increase the monthly production of blue-violet laser diodes from 500,000 pieces (total of low- and high-power products; as of July 2007) to 700,000 pieces by April 2008.
The company intends to strengthen the production of high-power red laser diode (1.8mm thick package product) from 5 million pieces per month in fiscal 2007 to 7 million pieces in fiscal 2008.
Along with the expansion of production capacity, Sharp plans to focus on power enhancement and the reduction of laser diode size. The company released a blue-violet laser diode with a light output of 250mW under pulsed operation in February 2008, mass-production of which is scheduled to start in April 2008.
The laser diode is applicable to devices that can perform 4-6x high-speed recording on double layer discs. The company plans to ship 300mW class blue-violet laser diodes compatible with devices that can record at 8x or higher on double layer discs by around 2009.
Moreover, Sharp unveiled its plans to release a 350mW class product in the later half of 2009 and a 400mW class product by around 2010.
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