KYOCERA to Acquire TFT Liquid Crystal Display Design &
Manufacturing Facility Yasu plant from SONY.
In the Yasu plant Sony produced small LCD Panels for mobile phones.
Kyocera Corporation today announced that it has reached a definitive agreement with Sony Corporation and its subsidiary Sony Mobile Display Corporation (herein “SMD”) to acquire part of its Thin Film Transistor (TFT) Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) design and manufacturing business. The acquisition will be undertaken by means of a corporate split, where Kyocera will acquire the TFT LCD facilities of SMD located in Yasu City, Shiga Prefecture, Japan, effective June 1, 2010. Existing employment contracts will be assigned to Kyocera and employees transferred on the same date.
Is this the end for Sonys OLED development?
Sony’s partial exit from low-temperature polysilicon displays will also raise doubts about their OLED development goals, because parts of the manufacturing process for low-temperature polysilicon are closely related to the technology needed to make OLED TV panels. In February Sony stop selling the first OLED-TV “XEL-1″ in Japan.
Background
Kyocera’s Corporate Thin Film Components Group develops, manufactures and markets small- and medium-sized (under 10.4 inch) LCDs for industrial applications worldwide. The company is known as a stable supplier of STN (passive) and TFT (active) LCDs, with strong capabilities in accommodating specific customer requirements, even in low-volume orders.
Strong growth in demand for more cost-competitive, larger, higher resolution industrial-use TFT LCDs is expected to continue. The acquisition of SMD’s TFT LCD business is intended to strengthen Kyocera’s ability to respond to this growth.
This acquisition will enable Kyocera to expand its diverse TFT LCD line with products of even higher added value to meet a wider range of customer needs.
Source:kyocera
