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Nichia and Sony cross-license laser IP

22 Apr 2004

Japanese companies Nichia and Sony are to share intellectual property relating to GaN-based blue-violet laser diodes.

Nichia and Sony have agreed to cross-license patents related to blue-violet laser diodes for optical disc applications.

The two Japanese companies have been collaborating on the development and manufacture of GaN laser diodes since December 2002.

The cross-license agreement will further strengthen the existing collaboration. In a joint statement, the companies said the agreement would enable use of “all related patents on blue-violet laser diodes, with no time limit, in the field of optical disc recording/playback”.

Collectively, the two companies have filed around 800 patent applications in the field.

Both Sony and Nichia will mass-produce the lasers, which they believe will lead to a stable supply for their use in Blu-ray disc consumer applications and professional disc systems.

The technological collaboration is set to continue, with plans to reduce the cost of devices through improvements in production efficiency, and to develop higher-performance and higher-power lasers.

LaCroix Precision OpticsSPECTROGON ABECOPTIKTRIOPTICS GmbHOptikos Corporation Berkeley Nucleonics CorporationOmicron-Laserage Laserprodukte GmbH
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