Fujitsu and Mitsui launch laser venture

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have announced that they have established a new optical device venture, QD Laser (QDL), to bring Fujitsu's quantum dot laser technology to market.

Quantum dots, from which the new venture takes its name, are semiconductor particles that are a single nanometre (one billionth of a metre) in size. Quantum dots and technology utilising quantum dots were developed through an academic-industrial research collaboration by Fujitsu Limited, Fujitsu Laboratories, and Professor Yasuhiko Arakawa's laboratory at the University of Tokyo.

Quantum dot lasers, which use this technology, have a number of advantages over conventional semiconductor lasers. They feature temperature-independent operation, low power consumption, long-distance transmission and high speed. The companies anticipate that quantum dot lasers will provide light sources for optical telecommunication, for which data traffic is continuing to increase rapidly.

Utilising quantum dot semiconductor crystallisation 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 LAN within buildings.

The joint venture will be funded by each company’s venture capital subsidiaries.