New blue laser technology promises portable Blu-ray players

By Alun Williams

Posted on 18 Oct 2004 at 14:03

Blu-ray goes mobile - this is the promise of a new technological development prototyped by Japanese company Victor.

The company has created a single-objective glass lens with the world's highest numerical aperture (NA), reports NE Asia Online. By improving production yields and cutting the current lens size, the technology could promote the use of portable Blu-ray discs in mobile equipment, for example BD players.

Theoretically, the new lens could boost capacities of a standard-sized blue-laser optical disc to 40GB. Developed to enable recording and rewriting of high-definition television (HDTV), Blu-ray currently enables over two hours of recording on a 27GB disc (about 13 hours of standard-definition television).

The technical challenge, according to the website, has been to secure the sharp slope of the lens face as precisely as required when moulding a glass lens with such a high numerical aperture. The company is apparently achieving moulding errors of less than 0.1 micron.

Victor was disclosing details of the prototype at ISOM 2004, a symposium on optical disc technology that was held in South Korea last week.