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Sony's diode laser developer awarded 2012 Leibinger prize
Osamu Kumagai, a senior VP at Sony, has won the 2012 Berthold Leibinger Zukunftspreis in recognition of his work on the mass production of laser diodes used in successive generations of optical data storage.
Sony has long been at the forefront of laser technology, first with near-infrared and red emitters and more recently pioneering the development of blue laser diodes for use in Blu-ray Disc players and recorders and the company's PlayStation 3 console.
Thanks in part to new kinds of substrate materials, Sony was able to overcome a problem inherent to the make-up of the semiconductor materials required to produce blue light. Kumagai's advances made it possible to produce the devices in a high-yielding process that delivered cheaper and more powerful diodes that in turn reduced the cost of Blu-ray players dramatically.
The Berthold Leibinger Zukunftspreis also recognizes how Kumagai and his colleagues engineered combinations of diode devices operating at different wavelengths to ensure backwards-compatibility of Blu-ray hardware with CDs and DVDs.
Story filed 02.10.12
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