PIONEER Corp., Japan and SINGULUS TECHNOLOGIES AG, Germany have entered into a cooperation agreement for the optimization of the production process in DVD-RW manufacturing.
PIONEER became the first company worldwide to provide an alternative to the conventional VHS recorder when it recently introduced a new DVD recorder to the public. The cooperative agreement with SINGULUS TECHNOLOGIES resulted in a partnership for the development of mass production of DVD-RW (rewritable optical data storage, e.g., recording TV programs). The subject of the cooperation agreement is the optimization of the most important production step in the manufacturing of rewritable DVDs: vacuum deposition. In collaboration with Pioneer, the coating process and production technology of the recently introduced MODULUS system was adapted to the requirements of mass production and important know-how transferred.
As a result of the close cooperation with Pioneer, SINGULUS TECHNOLOGIES expects to attain a significant advantage over its competitors. The market introduction of the MODULUS multi-cathode metallizer as well as the development of a complete production system (replication line) for DVD-RW will now be markedly accelerated.
This will present SINGULUS TECHNOLOGIES AG with extremely interesting growth potential in the near future.
Background:
While VHS cassette and DVD-RW/RAM formats can both be re-recorded, the playback quality and storage capacity provided by digital optical data storage is significantly higher than that of the aging magnetic tape. Due to their unique layer structure, the DVD and especially the new DVD-RW formats place the utmost demands on manufacturing technology, particularly on coating technologies.
Rewritable CD and DVD media operate in accordance with the phase change principle (i.e., the laser-recorded portions of the disc are transformed from an amorphous into a crystalline state and back again) and have a much more complex composition. They consist of systems with up to 8 individual layers with the highest uniformity.
Its very high sales potential makes DVD-rewritable for consumer video and PC applications the market of the future. Market predictions for high consumer demand in 2001 and 2002 should cause the roughly 5,000 DM price for the first DVD recorders introduced by PIONEER in Japan to quickly drop to approx. 1,000 DM.
All prognoses are based on the premise that rewritable DVD with its digital quality will rapidly replace the analog videocassette and the VCR. As a result, multi-billion unit sales are anticipated for the rewritable DVD market, which will in turn trigger a corresponding demand for fully automated replication lines.