Sony Shiroishi Semiconductor Inc., a subsidiary of Sony Corporation, today announced that as of March 2007, cumulative shipments of laser diodes have reached 2 billion units since it started production in 1986. As of April 2007, Sony has also established a monthly production capacity of 1.7 million blue-violet laser diodes, offering a comprehensive product lineup of blue-violet laser diodes for the needs of external customers as well as for use in Sony products. Furthermore, the company plans to start mass production of high-power output 240mw diodes from November this year.

There has recently been a rapid increase in blue-violet laser diode demand, for use in devices such as Blu-ray Disc players or game consoles. To meet this demand, Sony has installed front-end wafer process equipment capable of producing 5 million blue-violet laser diodes (BD playback-only equivalent) per month.

In addition to the stable production and supply of blue-violet laser diodes, Sony will also offer a comprehensive lineup of blue-violet laser diodes targeting the wide-ranging needs of customers:



Since its establishment in 1986, Sony Shiroishi has become a key site in the development and production of laser diodes, introducing a total semiconductor laser production system that integrates MOCVD (Metal Organic Chemical Vapor Deposition) epitaxial growth with sophisticated wafer processes. It also produces infrared laser diodes for CD players / drive units, red laser diodes for DVD players / recorders and blue-violet laser diodes for BD players / recorders.