Sony bets the farm on organic panels

19 Feb 2008 | 11:56 GMT

By Nick Booth

SONY WILL INVEST 22 billion yen (that’s £103 million) to develop technology for the next big thing in audio visual technology. Namely, huge, higher-definition organic electroluminescence (EL) panels, according to nikkei.net.

Sony’s not spending the money on research: that’s all done. The investment will go on revamping manufacturing facilities for the organic EL panels. By the second half of next year, they should be knocking out these new audio-visual beauties.

By 2010, they’ll be in the hands of IT distributors, like Midwich in the UK, who will enthuse about the new margin opportunities, in seminars with their top resellers. By 2011, schools with be persuaded to invest in them, and skips up and down the country will be full of expensive plasma screens that our tax pounds bought to educate our children. Bah!

Anyway, Sony believes organic EL technology will significantly widen the scope for applications for audiovisual equipment, including televisions. (Like they're not wide enough already?)

EL panels project a glow very similar to neon, but with greater flexibility, as their directional light source is completely dimmable for great interior mood effects, as well as backlit displays. With widths of between a quarter to 30 inches, and lengths of up to 300 feet, EL flatlite can be used for virtually any application, apparently.

Last year Sony launched a small 11-inch super-thin OLED TV in Japan. µ

L'INQ
Read up on EL on www.flexglow.com

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