Intersil's Blu-Ray Laser Driver By SGHT Staff September 15, 2002 — An advancement in integrated circuit technology could boost the recording capacity of single-sided optical discs from 4.7 gigabytes to 27GB, according to a September 9 announcement from Irvine, California–based Intersil Corporation. One likely result is the rapid development of consumer HDTV and PC-based optical recorders.

Intersil, a world leader in the design and manufacture of high-performance analog and wireless networking solutions, claims that its new EL6900C laser-driver chip is "the world's first laser driver designed specifically for the new Blu-Ray Disc industry-standard disc-recording format." The Blu-Ray Disc standard is the next-generation recording technology beyond DVD. It dramatically increases recording density by using a shorter-wavelength 405-nanometer blue-violet laser—compared to the conventional longer-wavelength 650nm red laser used in today's DVD technology.

Blu-Ray's shorter-wavelength laser enables a smaller spot size and track pitch to be recorded on the disc, thereby increasing the data density from 4.7 to 27GB on a single-sided disc. "The 27GB Blu-Ray Disc format is targeted into a variety of applications, including PC archival data-storage Ultra Density Optical (UDO) drives and consumer digital video recorders (DVR), to record up to two hours of high-definition television (HDTV) on a single 120mm DVD/CD-size disc," the announcement stated.

The programmable EL6900C has the Blu-Ray disc standard write-strategy waveforms integrated into its high-speed waveform generator, thereby eliminating the need to carry high-speed timing signals, the announcement stated. "The EL6900C integrates key functions needed to simplify the design of closed-loop automatic power control," said Stephen P. Sacarisen, marketing director for Intersil's optical products group. "This is a major breakthrough and will enable increasing write performance, flexibility, and lower-cost system solutions over existing architectures."

Michelle Abraham, senior analyst with In-Stat/MDR, concurred: "The EL6900C and the Blu-Ray Disc recording standard satisfy the surging demand for increased disc-based video- and data-recording capacity. We project this new technology will propel the DVD rewritable market to 62 million units in 2006."

Intersil has other Blu-Ray products in development, said Mohan Maheswaran, VP and general manager of Intersil's Elantec Product Group. "The EL6900C is our first product offering on our roadmap of Blu-Ray Disc format write-strategy laser drivers and demonstrates our commitment to developing the first industry-enabling products for emerging high-growth optical disc-storage markets," he explained. "We will continue to develop state-of-the-art products that enable increasing write-speed performance and integration of system-level features that offer the highest performance and most cost-effective system-level solution in the industry."

OEMs note: The EL6900C is available now in the 38-pin leadless plastic package (LPP). Each IC costs $5.00 in 10,000-unit quantities. Contact Stephen P. Sacarisen for more information at (408) 945-1323, x345.