Companies Team to Make Qdot Lasers for Optical LANs

Communications solutions provider Fujitsu Ltd. and trading house Mitsui & Co. Ltd. announced that they will cooperate to develop and manufacture quantum dot lasers and optical devices through their new joint business, QD Laser Inc. (QDL).

Quantum dots are semiconductor particles that are a single nanometer (one billionth of a meter) in size. Quantum dots and technology using quantum dots were developed through an academic-industrial research collaboration by Fujitsu Ltd., Fujitsu Laboratories and Professor Yasuhiko Arakawa's laboratory at the University of Tokyo, the companies said in a statement.

"Quantum dot lasers, which use this technology, are revolutionary lasers that are significantly superior to conventional semiconductor lasers in that they feature higher performance in such aspects as temperature-independent operation, low power consumption, long-distance transmission and high speed. It is anticipated that quantum dot lasers will become a core technology to realize high-performance light sources for optical telecommunication, for which data traffic is continuing to increase rapidly," the statement said.

Using quantum dot semiconductor crystallization technology developed by Fujitsu and laser design and process technologies, QDL will offer quantum dot lasers to the optical telecommunication light source market for use in optical access and optical LANs within buildings, the companies said. Mitsui has made financial contributions to establish QDL and said it will support the company through strategic planning, operational management, capitalization and fund-raising, as well as by providing global marketing support.

Fujitsu owns 61 percent of QDL and Mitsui 39 percent. President and CEO of QDL is Mitsuru Sugawara of Fujitsu Laboratories Ltd. For more information, visit: www.mitsui.co.jp/tkabz/english or www.fujitsu.com