The 125-inch display is made using a proprietary plasma array technology developed by the company, , with the first screens aimed at public display applications. A prototype on show at the FPD International exhibition that opened in Japan on Wednesday and is attracting crowds of mostly display-industry insider attendees.

"Basically this display is based on the plasma display technology but it's a very unique technology," said Manabu Ishimoto [cq], chief financial officer of the company in an interview.

Rather than make the screen on large sheets of inflexible glass the plasma array screen uses thin glass tubes with walls that are just 0.1 millimeters thick. Inside the tubes the construction is similar to that of conventional plasma display panels but the use of the tubes means the screen is not only thin -- the 3 meter by 1 meter prototype is only a millimeter thick -- but also flexible.

As an indication of how closely the company is guarding the technology, it has hired guards at the display exhibition who are stopping visitors getting too close to the screen and making sure that no one but journalists are taking photos of it.

In addition to its size and flexibility the panel is light, weighing about 1.4 kilograms. It also uses a maximum of 600 watts of power, which is less than half that of a display array made with conventional plasma display panels, said Ishimoto.