PC World Business

Sony has refined an existing liquid crystal display (LCD) technology to come up with a display that it claims will give projectors a crisper picture.

The company said the display panels, which were based on High-Temperature Polysilicon LCD technology, offered a five-fold improvement in contrast ratio at around 2000:1 and 10 per cent better light transmittance compared to panels currently used in most of Sony's front-projectors. Front projectors are used to project an image onto the front of a wall or white screen.

The LCD panels were able to deliver a picture of quality roughly between that available from standard projectors and that from Sony's high-end Qualia 004 projector, which used Sony's proprietary SXRD display panel technology, a Sony spokesperson, David Yang, said.

A large part of this image improvement is due to the use of an inorganic material for two alignment layers inside the panel. Current panels used an organic material which was less resistant to light and so not able to deliver as high a brightness or contrast ratio, Yang said. This layer also contributed to a lifespan of roughly four times that of current panels, he said.

Mass production of the panels, which will be branded "Bi:NA 6," will begin in about one year from now.

Unlike the SXRD panels, which came at a considerable price premium over conventional panels, the new panels were likely to be priced competivity with conventional panels, Yang said.