Sony announced new diodes for both CD and DVD formats. The "SLD253VL" of 780nm can be used for up to 48x recording speed with 250mW output. The "SLD1233VL" of 650nm laser diode can be used for 4x writing/re-writing (or more) for DVD format (100mW output). Both diodes will come on the market from May, 2002 at 1000/2000 yen respectively. The "SLD253VL" laser diode is based on the MOCVD which is the SONY individual semiconductor grain growth technology (Metal Organic Chemical Vapor Deposition: Organic metal air layer growth method) on the basis of technology, COD (Catastrophic Optical Damage: optical damage resulting from its optical output). By newly adopting the protective coating technology structure which controls penetration loss of the laser light within a diode, the 250mW high pulse rated output was achieved.

This new laser diode improves Sony's previous 180mW output of their 32x CD-RW recorder. The new laser diode can be used for more than 40x recording and also in DVD/CD-RW combo recorders.