Sanyo Electric Co. said Tuesday it will invest 45 billion yen in the production of charge-coupled devices over three years starting in fiscal 2003.

The company's move reflects growing demand for CCDs, or sensors used in such digital devices as camera-equipped mobile phones to pick up images.

Of the total, Sanyo said, 10 billion yen will be invested in 2003.

The investment is designed to boost Sanyo's monthly CCD production capacity by five times to 5 million units in spring 2004, it said.

Sanyo hopes for 100 billion yen in CCD sales for the 2005 business year.

The company also said it will start sample shipments of blue-violet semiconductor laser parts in May to start mass production this autumn. The laser will be used in next-generation optical discs, for writing and retrieving data.

Sanyo Electric will invest 10 billion yen in advanced optical parts, including new laser parts, by 2005, aiming to achieve 15 billion yen in sales from those products in 2006, it said.