Although Lite-On IT has been enjoying increased sales of its slim-type DVD burners, the company is worried it may soon face a shortage of prisms, a key component for making the burners, according to the company’s Optical Disc Drive Business general manager Michael Gong. Lite-On IT imports the prism from Japan.

With slim-type DVD burners required to be as light and thin as possible, prism makers face a number of manufacturing barriers, and their yield rates are not high, Gong quoted the company’s Japanese suppliers as saying. The yield rates are not expected to improve until early next year, Gong added.

Slim-type DVD burners are more profitable than Lite-On IT’s other product lines, so an insufficient supply of prisms will make it difficult for the company to improve its gross margins this quarter, Gong indicated.