Sanyo blue laser diode could double Blu-ray capacity

[kattman]

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Sanyo Electric has developed a blue laser diode that will help lay the ground toward higher capacity and faster Blu-ray Disc systems.

The laser can emit a beam of 450 milliwatts, which is about double the power of Sanyo's current highest power laser for Blu-ray Disc systems. The higher power means it can write and read data on discs with up to four data layers and at speeds of up to 12X, Sanyo said on Monday.

Each recording layer on a Blu-ray Disc can store 25G bytes of data and the current highest capacity commercial discs have two recording layers. A four-layer disc would be able to hold 100G bytes of data, which translates to about eight hours of high-definition video, and at 12X speed all that data could be burned to the disc in just 10 minutes.

While the development of the laser is a step toward such systems, users shouldn't expect them anytime soon. With the development of a suitable laser, companies are now able to work on products supporting the higher speeds, but the length of the development cycle and the Blu-ray Disc standardization process means drives and recorders running at the higher speeds likely won't be available until one or two years later.

Optical disc systems like Blu-ray Disc typically advance throughout their life thanks to developments in component technology. Stronger lasers mean additional recording layers can be added and discs can be spun faster. Most of the latest Blu-ray Disc drives support double-layer at speeds of up to 6X.

pcworld

[opaper]

Write speeds would also increase, moving up to 12X. That means you’d be able to write an entire disc in just 10 minutes. But again, this fancy new diode was just developed, meaning it won’t used in the production of Blu-ray discs for at least one year, if not two. And they say physical media has no future, ha!

[PeterAGASSI]

Who said that the physical media were convicted? In a statement, the Japanese group Sanyo Electric announced last October 3, the development of a new diode dedicated to burning optical discs in Blu-ray format. Showing a power of 450 milliwatts, twice that of previous products of the company, it would allow the burning of blank media at a maximum speed of 12x and provide an opportunity to develop discs with four layers of data , Which would consider producing Blu-ray 100 GB

Various manufacturers have already studied the design of media with a maximum of 20 layers of data. They would record the capacity of 500 GB of data on a disc the size of a single CD, but it remains to develop diodes able to properly handle the writing on a complex. That is partly why the Blu-ray today to cap two layers, or a maximum of 50 GB of data.

Sanyo hopes to be able to begin mass production of this diode 5.6 millimeters in diameter. Meanwhile, the alliance presiding over the destiny of the Blu-ray format might be the time to ratify the media and four-layer burning in 12x. The latter would in theory to include 25 GB of data on the surface of a Blu-ray in about ten minutes.