Aug 1, 1998 12:00 PM

Something New, Something Blue

By Robert A. Metzger

| UPDATA

| Something New, Something Blue

Iarch 1995 ("<a h Boo-Roo</a>em>d</em3, page 136), d</emorted on Nichia Chemical's creation of the first blue light-emitting diode fabricated out of a semiconductor called gallium nitride (GaN). The breakthrough by Shuji Nakamura, a stellar researcher at the small Japanese company, represented a giant leap toward a long-sought goal in optical engineering: the blue laser. Think of the blue LED as a minivan – necessary, dependable, and totally unexciting. But the blue laser is a whole new sort of automobile.

Tsmaller a laser's wavelength, the smaller a spot it can form, producing tinier pits on a CD's surface. With a short wavelength of 400 nanometers, a blue laser could be used to store 15 Gbytes of data on a standard CD. Compare this to the 0.65 Gbytes of storage via 780-nm lasers on a CD today, and you see why the little blue lights are such a big deal.

Iecember 1995, drawing from Nichia's LED work, Nakamura fabricated the first GaN laser: a ray that worked for just a few seconds and operated in a pulsed mode (more off than on) to prevent overheating. Since then, however, Nichia has developed a blue laser that operates in continuous CW mode. The sophisticated device incorporates multiple layers of GaN and GaInN (gallium indium nitride) – some layers only a few atoms thick – into a laser powerful enough not only to read the microscopic pits in a CD, but to blast them into a CD's surface, making this laser suitable for read/write applications.

An, Nichia was first out of the gate. According to Steven DenBaars, who developed a GaN blue laser at the University of California at Santa Barbara, Nichia has a two-year lead. "Even one and a half years after Nichia announced reliable CW emission, no other group has attained a long-life CW laser. This is unprecedented in semiconductor research, where advances are usually repeated in a few months by other large electronic companies." And if Nichia's technical edge is not enough to keep them ahead, its patent portfolio will help. "Nichia has 500 patent applications," Nakamura reports. "Thus, it is difficult for other companies to manufacture laser diodes and LEDs without a license from us."

Oourse, patents and a two-year lead will not stop other players from competing – the stakes are too high, the rewards too great. Cree Research, Hewlett-Packard, Xerox, Toshiba, and others have produced their own blue lasers, though so far none can compare with the performance of Nichia's. Most researchers are still struggling to get their lasers to operate at the high power levels Nichia's are capable of, and even when they can, the devices burn up in a matter of minutes. Trying to leapfrog Nichia's technology, Cree uses high-conductivity substrates to reduce heating effects, and HP's ridge-waveguide laser structure operates in a single lateral mode, making it ideal for data-storage applications.

Ihe meantime, though, Nichia's still well ahead of the pack in the rush for blue gold.

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When >Wirem> wrbout Boeing's plans to use experimental augmented-reality equipment on the production line ("<a href=he Jet Set</a>," <irem> 5.age 128), the Seattle behemoth was ecstatic about the beta project's potential. AR would allow workers to lay the miles of wire required in a jumbo jet without having to juggle unwieldy schematics or leave the shop floor to consult drawings.

mer mania intervened. When Boeing bought McDonnell Douglas in the summer of 1997 (after acquiring Rockwell International's space division almost two years ago), the company found it had more than one VR program to consider. The newly purchased companies were already developing their own AR technology – using different platforms. While the projects don't differ radically, Boeing decided to take the time to evaluate all three before moving forward. That put "everything in a holding pattern," according to spokesperson Bob Jorgensen.

ing won't commit to one AR technology until the fourth quarter of 1998. The delay could be a matter of due diligence; it could also be related to last year's billions of dollars in charges against earnings.

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m>Telem> is themate vapor book," Po Bronson wrote in his profile of the Forbes A/em> columnnd publisher of the Gilder Tology Report ("<a hhttr</a>," W</e.03, 122), noting that the sequel to Gilder's 1989 best-selling Microcosm> has beomised every year since 1993. More than two years have come and gone since Bronson's piece, and, until recently, the Forbes A/em> Web ar promised a 1998 publication date. But at press time Gilder's publisher, Simon & Schuster, had still not listed the title in its 1998 catalog. Gild

blem? Internet time laps publishing time at an increasing rate – meaning the emerging technologies Telecosm> is sup to describe are, unfortunately, emerging ever faster. The book has devolved into an endlessly revolving exercise in writing, rewriting, and rewriting again. As o

rJune, Gilder was still at it, aiming at another approaching deadline. "In the past 90 days he's written about 70,000 words," said Chuck Frank, vice president of Gilder's consulting company. "He's really cranking on this." Stil

ftendees at Gilder's second annual Telecosm Conference this September want to beat their techno-utopian host at a game of Stump the Futurist, they might try the following question: "George, where's the book?"