Sharp announced today the succesfull develpment a 400mW red laser diode, small enough to fit in high-speed DVD burners for laptops. The Japanese company said that the new "GH16P40A8C" laser diode is extremely thin (1.8mm) and it can output 400mW red laser pulses, strong enough to burn dual-layer DVDs at the highest available speeds. Sharp's current laser diodes for DVDs output at 350mW.





Sharp expects that the rapid growth in the digital terresrial broadcastings in Japan will also fire up a corresponding demand for fast recorders for and notebooks PCs.

The company aims at a production capacity of 7000000 units / month, starting next April.