Sony Shows New 0.3mm OLED at CEATEC

Sony debuted yet another amazing OLED TV at this year's CEATEC in Japan - an OLED display that measures just 0.3 mm in thickness. It demoed these alongside other 0.9 mm models which are more likely to make it to market before the 2012 Olympics. The new displays really set many people talking about how cool the new technology looked. The 0.3 mm display had a gently curved screen and was situated behind glass, with the electronics components feeding the display from below. Apart from that, the self-emitting display was about as thin as a credit card.

A YouTube video of the displays can be seen here.

PC World's New Zealand division also shot some footage which can be seen here.

OLED is the magic bullet that both manufacturers and consumers are waiting on. It features organic emissive light technology, which means that it requires no backlight in order to emit light from the display. This helps contribute to the extremely thin profiles available with this technology. While currently very expensive to manufacture, OLED should ultimately cost less to produce once several hurdles are reached and manufacturing ramps up. There is simply less involved in making the displays - and that means reduced costs... eventually.

Sony's launched the first commercial OLED TV, the XEL-1, at last year's CEATEC and it made major waves throughout the industry. That model, which retails for around $2500 is just 3mm thick, and is only 11-inches in size. Sony, among others, are hoping to be able to ramp up the size of the displays when the market is right and certain manufacturing issues are resolved.

The new 0.3mm panel is based on the same screen that's used in the XEL-1. By carefully grinding down the glass substrate, the panel is made thinner but also much more brittle. There were also no details of when the even-thinner 11-inch set might hit the market. Until the OLED displays grow in size - and shrink in price - most consumers will simply have to ogle over the technology from afar.