DVD firms in Taiwan will become more self-sufficient: ITRI

Taiwan is expected to take the lead in the development of high density DVD technology, which will result in Taiwan's industry becoming more self sufficient and less dependent on imports of related components, which in turn leads to more competitive prices of finished products. Taiwan has successfully developed DVD multifunction pickup heads, chip sets, spindle motors, multiplayer discs, multi-beam drives, and mechanical and loading mechanisms for optical pickup heads, giving local DVD makers independence from imports of such key components, said Yung S. Liu, general director of the Opto-Electronics & Systems Laboratories (OESL) of the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) during a preview of the Taipei International DVD & Optoelectronics Show which runs this week in Taipei. The availability of these key components will enable Taiwan to become a major supplier of DVD-RAM, DVD-RW, and DVD video players. The OESL developed six different types of DVD-ROM pickup heads in 1997 and 1998, and transferred the technical know-how to local manufacturers. In 1999 the OESL made an important technical breakthrough after introducing its 4.7 GB DVD-RAM/DVD-RW pickup heads. That breakthrough catapulted the OESL to equal footing with Japanese DVD head makers such as Matsushita, Pioneer, and Hitachi in terms of technical sophistication. The OESL recently introduced its newest DVD multi-optical pickup head, which is compatible with the specifications of DVD-RAM/RW/R and DVD/CD, and is the highest level pickup head technology to be developed. Taiwan's production of optical storage devices hit 142 billion Taiwan Dollars last year, or 41% of the total production of the optoelectronics industry. These devices include CD-R, CD-ROM, CD-RW, and DVD players.