BD Manufacturing Lines Added by Mitsubishi Chemical Infonics (Verbatim)

Mitsubishi Kagaku Media Co., Ltd. is adding new production lines for Blu-ray Discs (BD) at its Mitsubishi Chemical Infonics (MCI) plant in Singapore to be able to meet the ever-increasing demand of the BD market.

The new manufacturing facilities include two lines that produce BD-R DL 50GB and BD-R LTH 25GB. Production on the BD-R DL line will start in the beginning of May with product starting to ship in the latter part of the month. With this expansion, planned capacity will be 300,000 discs a month but, in conjunction with future increases in market demand, MKM is considering further expansion. The BD-R LTH line has already started production and will begin shipping the latter half of April. The existing BD-R LTH had a monthly production of 400,000 discs but, with this expansion, monthly production will be increased to 1 million discs with a concentration on 4x and 6x high-speed recordable products.

As the main plant of MKM, MCI is fulfilling its role in establishing production lines for new products, in producing value-added products and in currently manufacturing single-sided, double-layer DVD (DVDGR DL) and BD-R LTH discs. With the new production capacity of the BD-R LTH and BD-R DL lines, MCI will be able to increase their BD production and respond to the needs of the current market.
 
For single-sided, double-layer BD-R DL, which demands high level technology, MKM combined its inorganic recording layer technology, BD-R double-layer single-sided technology and DVDR DL double-layer technology to manufacture high-quality BD-R DL discs.
 
For BD-R LTH, MKM combined the manufacturing technology of dye media (fostered for many years by MCI in the production of CD-R, DVDR, DVDR DL), fused it with the MKM developed BD organic dye recording layer and used media design engineering to create a reliable organic recoding dye with promising performance.
 
In the midst of increased demand for BD media, stemming from actual experience with recordable CD/DVD, even further increased demand is forecast especially for BD-R. Because dye layer recording BD-R LTH uses the same manufacturing process as recordable CD/DVD, future rapid increases in demand can easily be met by using both production lines.
 
MKM, through its Verbatim brand, provides recordable media products.
 
MKM BD-R DL
MKM BD-R DL uses the unique inorganic Metal ABlative Layer (MABL) in its recording film. On the recording surface’s MABL (made with MKM’s own unique ablative method using a special metal nitride), pits are formed through the breakdown of the recording surface’s material. Since metal nitride is chemically more stable than metal alone, the disc’s storage capability over the long term is comparable to the highly-reliable AZO recording dye films; furthermore, it achieves an extremely wide power margin, which makes it difficult for the recording to be affected by fluctuations and variations in the drive’s recording power.
 
MKM BD-R LTH TYPE
MKM BD-R LTH uses the highly reliable AZO organic dye in its recording film. The use of organic dyes in the recording film of the BD-R LTH causes the reflectivity of the disc after recording to change from a low to high reflectivity. Thus, the BD-R with organic dyes on the recording film has been designated as being Low to High (LTH).
 
MKM Blu-ray Disc(BD)

• BD’s cover layer is created by a spin-coating method, which ensures a uniform thickness and a surface smoothness of 1/100 micron
• A hard coat that protects the recording surface and prevents damage from dust, scratches or fingerprints
• Mastering technology creates a track pitch 57% narrower than that of a DVD
• Injection molding technology creates an accurate copy of the stamper (master)
• A high level of quality control achieves stable recording and playback