Sony and Panasonic to collaborate again on OLED

Sony and Panasonic have again agreed to merge their R&D departments for the development of OLED technology. Japan Display is also involved in a consortium, of which Sony is already part.

The new partnership will be called Joled, the companies involved have announced. Joled can probably start in January; permission is still needed from the authorities before the cooperation can be sealed. The new company will mainly focus on the development of OLED screens for mobile devices such as tablets. No specific products are known yet.

Japan Display, a consortium that includes Toshiba and Hitachi in addition to Sony, will receive 15 percent of the ‘voting rights’ for Joled. Japan Display has also been set up for the development of screen technology. Sony and Panasonic will each own 5 percent of the voting rights. The vast majority of voting rights will be in the hands of Innovation Network Corporation of Japan, a so-called public-private partnership between companies and governments to promote innovation in various business areas.

Sony and Panasonic previously worked together on OLED, but that collaboration was terminated last year. The previous collaboration lasted a year and a half.