Sony Now Mass Producing OLED Displays

Starting this month, Sony will mass produce a relatively large, full-color OLED display. This announcement comes as something of a surprise, as there were reports this summer that problems would delay production until this fall or later.

OLED (organic light-emitting diode) displays are self-luminous, and therefore do not require a backlight. They offer a high contrast ratio, a quick response time, and wide viewing angle -- all in a package slimmer than current LCD modules.

To enhance its OLED display, Sony has used its Super Top Emission technology, which it says provides outstanding brightness and greater color gamut.

These translate into image quality and clarity that could previously viewed only on CRT displays.

Sony's new 3.8-inch OLED display, which is just 2.14 mm thick, is being used in the Clie PEG-VZ90, a handheld that was announced in Japan today.

Sony has stopped introducing New Handhelds outside of Japan, but it supplies screens to other handheld makers. It's entirely possible that a Pocket PC or Palm with a Sony-made OLED display could debut in the relatively near future.

A Bit of Background Info

In 2003, Sony and Toyota formed a partnership called ST Liquid Crystal Display to develop OLED displays. This partnership was so confident that late last year it leaked to a Japanese newspaper that Sony would be able to release a Clie with an OLED display this spring.

Unfortunately, it didn't meet this deadline. However, ST Liquid Crystal Display has clearly worked out any problems it was having, as the Clie VZ90 will go on sale in Japan near the end of the month.

Of course, Sony isn't the only company working on OLED displays. A company that's a partnership between Toshiba and Matsushita demonstrated a prototype 3.45-inch OLED display at CeBIT this spring. However, this has yet to go into commercial production.

OLED displays are already being used in a few devices, but these are typically small secondary screens. The VZ90 is the first handheld to to use an OLED display as its primary screen.

Thanks to 1src for the tip.

Related Links

• Sony Debuts Clie VZ90
• Commercial Production of Handheld-Sized OLED Displays Delayed