"...Nichia Corporation announced today that its NLHV3000 series of high power violet laser diodes are moving into volume production. The NLHV3000 series laser diodes have a 405 nm peak wavelength and a 30 mW maximum optical power output, delivering up to five times the data storage capacity of red lasers commonly used in today's DVD players.

Manufacturers can use these violet laser diodes to expand the storage capacity of next generation DVD discs from the current 4.7 gigabytes to more than 20 gigabytes. This increased storage allows each DVD disc to hold up to ten hours of recorded video, instead of today's two hour limit. In addition to DVD players, these violet laser diodes can replace red laser diodes currently used in video games, laser printers, and scanners.

The NLHV3000 series are manufactured using Nichia's patented indium gallium nitride (InGaN) semiconductor technology. The wavelength of InGaN violet lasers is about two-thirds the 650 nm wavelength of red laser diodes used in today's DVD players. The shorter wavelength produced by InGaN contributes to the five-fold increase in data storage capacity of the next generation DVD discs. The increased optical power output of the NLHV3000 series enables the violet laser to not only read data but also write data for the next generation of higher density optical discs..." NULL