Hollywood, CA '“ May 25,
2005 '“ Broad acceptance and adoption of Blu-ray Disc has led to the
maturation of the complete disc manufacturing process. Having multiple companies
involved with each step has contributed to process improvements and cost
efficiencies that bring the long-term cost of manufacturing BD-ROM discs in line
with current DVD replication costs.
'There are a lot of companies
trying to stake out a position in various aspects of BD-ROM manufacturing," said
Kazuhiro Tsuga, executive officer of Matsushita Electric. 'As a result, we are
seeing multitudes of improvements in processes and technology, as well as the
effects of economies of scale that make replication extremely cost effective."
The most recent advances come in
the area of cover-layer technology, where one of two approaches (film bonding
and spin coating) can be used to apply the 0.1mm cover-layer used in Blu-ray
Disc.
The spin-coating process, which
uses resin to form the cover-layer, is now being piloted in Torrance, California
by Panasonic, who in cooperation with Origin Electric, has developed replication
technology and equipment for the mass production of spin-coated discs.
In film bonding, the development
of new extruded film technology by several leaders in the chemical industry has
significantly reduced film costs. A new film product from Teijin reduces the
cost of the cover film to one-third of the cost of conventional polycarbonate
materials, and Degussa, a new BDA member company, projects a single-digit Euro
cents per-disc cost at launch. In addition to these advances in film materials,
Lintec Corporation's hard coat material and film bonding process makes the film
bonding method very efficient.
With the improvements in
cover-layer technology, and in preparation for mass production of BD-ROM discs,
Singulus Technologies, a leading manufacturer of replication equipment, has
developed replication systems that will target cycle times towards three
seconds. Yields are expected to exceed 90 % in a full-scale, mass production
environment.
Sony has developed equipment to
streamline the disc mastering process by reducing the eleven steps currently
used in DVD mastering to five for BD-ROM. This mastering process, Phase
Transition Mastering (PTM), requires as little as one-fifth of the space
required for DVD mastering and the equipment can be configured to allow
mastering of both BD-ROM and DVD-ROM on a single system. The first two
commercial machines are for Technicolor and Cinram for Q2, 2005 installation.
With these developments in the
industry, replication facilities in the United States are setting up and
preparing to mass produce BD-ROM Discs. Technicolor is establishing a complete
pilot BD disc manufacturing process by July 2005. Cinram already has a pilot
replication line that produced demo discs for CES 2005 and is awaiting the
delivery of commercial lines.
'Fox is pleased to see the
increasing number of technology companies and materials vendors committing to
Blu-ray implementation, which is reducing costs to promising levels through
technological breakthroughs and innovation," said Danny Kaye, SVP Technology and
Research Strategy at Twentieth Century Fox. 'We look forward to continued
technological progress along with developments in content protection."
In addition to ramping up for mass
production of the 50GB discs that will be available at format launch, Blu-ray
has begun work to ensure that the format continues to grow as high-definition
technology evolves. Blu-ray companies have successfully demonstrated 200GB discs
in a laboratory environment and are poised to further expand the format's
capacity as needs dictate.
About Blu-ray
Disc
Blu-ray Disc is the
next-generation optical disc format being developed for high-definition video
and high-capacity software applications. A single-layer Blu-ray Disc will hold
up to 25 gigabytes of data and a double-layer Blu-ray Disc will hold up to 50
gigabytes of data.
About the Blu-ray Disc
Association
The Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA)
is responsible for promoting and further developing business opportunities for
Blu-ray Disc '“ the next-generation optical disc for storing high-definition
movies, games, photos and other digital content. The BDA has over 125 members.
Its Board of Directors consists of Apple; Dell Inc.; Hewlett Packard Company;
Hitachi, Ltd.; LG Electronics Inc.; Mitsubishi Electric Corporation; Panasonic
(Matsushita Electric); Pioneer Corporation; Royal Philips Electronics; Samsung
Electronics Co., Ltd.; Sharp Corporation; Sony Corporation; TDK Corporation;
Thomson; Twentieth Century Fox; and Walt Disney Pictures and
Television.
Source: Blu-ray Disc Association
