Nichia Chemical Industries is soon to commercially market a blue laser diode, a revolutionary semiconductor device, that has got a host of applications due to the shorter wavelength of blue light, than currently used red laser diodes. Blue laser diodes are critical for the production of high resolution printers, displays, high bandwidth optic fiber transmission systems and high capacity optical storage devices. The Nichia researcher, Shuji Nakamura, already beat the other semiconductor firms with the first commercial blue Light Emitting Diode – rather than the more technically challenging laser diode – in 1992, and now claims to have a Gallium Nitride blue laser diode with a lifespan of 3,000 hours. Nichia is again ahead of the game, its competitors Sony Corp, Fujitsu Ltd, Xerox Corp and a consortium led by Hewlett-Packard Co, apparently aren’t close to Nichia’s achievements.
