With this investment, Sony intends to accelerate the shift to middle & large size, high image quality OLED panels, according to their latest press release.

Sony began researching OLED technology in 1994 & has since positioned OLED as a future next-generation display technology. Last year, Sony launched the world’s 1st OLED TV , incorporating Sony’s proprietary “Organic Panel” to realize extreme thinness & superb image quality through a high contrast ratio, high peak brightness, accurate color reproduction & rapid response time.

In order to advance the shift towards middle & large size, high image quality OLED panels, Sony has decided to invest from the second half of the fiscal year ending March 31, 2009 towards the further development of production technologies. Sony will reinforce its TFT (thin film transistor) & EL (electroluminescent) layer coating processing facilities at Sony Mobile Display Corporation’s Higashiura factory & plans to implement this production technology during the fiscal year ending March 31, 2010.

Sony plans to continue to advance the development of OLED panels, positioning the OLED panel as a new device capable of expanding the future potential of televisions and other AV products.