High Resolution

Sony produces the SXRD panel's silicon backplane at our Kokubu Technology Center. The backplane uses a 0.35 micron process and an innovative drive circuit. A special planarization technique yields an extremely flat silicon backplane—important for cell gap uniformity. The panels themselves are assembled at Sony's Kumamoto Technology Center. There, Sony affixes the Index Matching Indium-Tin-Oxide (IMITO) glass to the backplane before we cut the wafer into individual panels. This process minimizes the Liquid Crystal cell gap, minimizes dust and keeps LC gap spacers clear of the image area—all important considerations in picture quality.

Sony SXRD panels have been establishing resolution benchmarks from Day One. The very first product to incorporate SXRD technology, Sony's Qualia™ 004 custom installation front projector, was also the world's first home microdisplay projector to deliver full 1920 x 1080 HD resolution. Critics were dazzled not only by the resolution but also the stable color and vivid contrast. Sony soon incorporated the same 0.78-inch diagonal SXRD panel into the Qualia 006 home theater rear projection television.

Sony's Qualia 004 custom installation projector (left) was the first product to incorporate SXRD technology, using the 0.78-inch 1920 x 1080 SXRD panel. It was soon joined by the Qualia 006 (right, shown with optional stand).

The next landmarks in SXRD resolution were the world's first commercially available 4K projectors, the SRX-R110 and SRX-R105, which take advantage of a substantially larger 1.55-inch microdisplay, Sony's second-generation SXRD panel.

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