History

(As of Jan.2007)

Jul.1987
Sony Chemicals Corporation
Listed on the Second Section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE).

Sony Chemicals Corporation went public in order to lead the public to a better understanding and a higher recognition of the proprietary advanced technologies.

Jan.1989
Sony Chemicals Corporation
Expanded internationally, moving into US, Europe and Asia.

Starting with the setting up of a locally incorporated company of Sony Chemicals in the United States, Sony Chemicals Corporation established overseas affiliated companies sequentially in Singapore in 1990, Netherlands in 1992, China in 1994, and Indonesia in 1997. The overseas affiliated companies have been pushing ahead with the manufacturing and sales of ink ribbon for thermal transfer printers in Europe and America and the manufacturing and sales of electronic parts and adhesive materials in Asia.

May.1989
Sony Neagari Corporation
Started production of high-density thin multilayer printed circuit boards
for the passport-sized camcorder Handycam TR-55.

Sony Neagari succeeded in developing the first consumer-use high-density thin multilayer printed circuit boards, which was designed to mount the 0.5 mm-pitch Quad Flat Package (QFP). It was incorporated in the passport-sized Handycam, a hot-selling video camera, helping to downsize the camcorder.

Nov.1990
Sony Neagari Corporation
Incorporated.

Sony Neagari Corporation was set up to expand the business of high-density multilayer printed wiring boards acting as one of the important key devices and to serve as the production base for onboard devices. Working in cooperation with the design team in Sony Corporation, Sony Neagari Corporation has been establishing a track record in circuit board wiring design and onboard device design.

Jan.1992
Sony Chemicals Corporation
Pushed into the business of recording layer protection Coating material for optical disks.

To keep up with the transition of recording media from tape to disk, Sony Chemicals Corporation developed and started selling of its SK3200 Series recording layer protection Coating material for optical disks. In 1998, in addition to domestic production, overseas production was launched in Sony Chemicals Corporation of America (Pittsburg), so the worldwide supply system was established. The manufacturing know-how at this time frame was of much help in developing the SK6000 Series bonding materials for DVD lamination.

Jul.1994
Sony Chemicals Corporation
Started production of protection element for Li-ion rechargeable battery.

As notebook-size personal computers, cellular phones, video cameras and other portable electronic equipment were coming out with reduced sizes and advanced features, the Li-ion rechargeable battery market expanded. Then Sony Chemicals Corporation succeeded in the world first mass production of protection elements that are essential to the safe operation of Li- ion batteries. Further in 1998, the company successfully developed the world's smallest size protection element Self Control Protector for Li-ion rechargeable batteries.

Apr.1995
Sony Chemicals Corporation
Became the first company to receive ISO14001 DIS certification for the environmental management system from DNV (Det Norske Veritas).

The ISO standards, which are now widely spread as international guarantee standards, prescribe stringent requirements for activities to maintain conformity even after acquisition of certification. Sony Chemicals Corporation became the first to obtain ISO14001DIS (Environmental Management System) certification. The same year the company acquired the certification of quality assurance standard ISO9001.

May.1995
Sony Neagari Corporation
Started production of build-up printed wiring board (photo via hole type).

In response to the downsized design of Handycam, Sony Neagari developed and put the build-up printed wiring board into production.
The company started production of RCC (resin coated copper foil) type laser build-up printed wiring board in 1998 and PP type[t12] laser build-up printed wiring board, adopted in Cyber Shot T1, in 2001. As the wiring boards were contributory to downsizing speedups and the VAIO and PlayStation were coming out at accelerated speeds, the impedance control became one of the critical specification requirements. Subsequently, the impedance control feature was incorporated in multilayer printed wiring boards in 2000 and build-up printed wiring boards in 2003, and these multilayer printed wiring boards were adopted in PlayStation 2 and VAIO Extreme 505.

May.1996
Sony Neagari Corporation
Started volume production of multilayer printed circuit board for PlayStation.

Sony Neagari started volume production of multilayer printed circuit board that was incorporated in the home-use hand-held video game console PlayStation first produced by Sony Computer Entertainment. In 2000, a multilayer printed circuit board for the PlayStation 2 was designed and it was adopted also in the PlayStation Portable (PSP) in 2005.

Jun.1996
Sony Chemicals Corporation
Received the Tokyo Stock Exchange's Listed Company Disclosure Award.

Sony Chemicals Corporation became a recipient of the first Listed Company Disclosure Award granted by Tokyo Stock Exchange to honor companies who actively disclose their corporate information. The company was highly regarded for the solid information disclosed and readable descriptions.

Apr.1997
Sony Miyagi Corporation
Started production of HDCAM video tapes for broadcasting and professional use.

Since the start of video tapes production in 1963, Tagajo Plant had been refining their knowledge of coating and deposition production technologies to keep up with the demand for higher-density recoding capabilities and higher-capacities of magnetic tapes. They started the mass production of metal tapes for broadcasting and professional use in 1990 and metal tapes for digital Betacam in 1995. Tagajo Plant played a huge role in helping Sony win the Emmy Award * two times for metal tape coating technology.
In 1997, the coating and evapolating technologies based on proprietary nanotechnology were used in the tape production for HDCAM format camcorders. This helped match the increasing demand for higher image quality and more versatile applications, and has served to consistently ensure the higher reliability of Sony's recording media products.
* Emmy Awards are presented to companies, organizations, or individuals that made great contributions to the development in science and television engineering. The Awards are so authoritative they are comparable to the Academy Awards in the broadcasting industry.

Dec.1997
Sony Chemicals Corporation
Developed metal-evaporated tape for digital videocassettes based on a noble technology.

Production of metal-evaporated tape for digital videocassettes was started in 1997.
The tape has been developed based on an innovative technology that deposits magnetic material directly onto the base film in a vacuum rather than using the conventional "coating" method.

Jan.1998
Sony Chemicals Corporation
Launched manufacturing of electrode for Li-ion rechargeable battery.

Sony Chemicals Corporation started production of electrodes in 1998 by making full use of proprietary coating techniques.

Jul.1998
Sony Chemicals Corporation
Developed environmentally friendly 2 layer polyimide circuit board.

In order to quickly answer the needs for a thinner printed circuit board in response to the downsizing and enhanced performance of electronic equipment, the flexible electronic circuit board "2 layer polyimide circuit board" was developed. The board was released as a halogen-free product, which eliminated adhesive layer based on the proprietary joining technique and contained no halogen that could emit harmful substances when incinerated.

Developed a variety of environmentally conscious products.

Sony Chemicals Corporation developed a wide range of eco-friendly products, including the halogen-free flexible flat cable (FFC), the solvent-less halogen-free double coated tapes "G9000" which does not use any toluene, MEK and other organic solvents in the manufacturing process, and the Anisotropic Conductive Film (ACF) for environmentally conscious high-reliability semiconductor packages and COF. The company has been highly regarded for its environmental consciousness.

Became the first company in Japan to acquire OHS MS certification.

Sony Chemicals Corporation became the first company in Japan to acquire the certification of OHS MS (Occupational Health and Safety Management System in accordance with BS-8800) from Det Norske Veritas (DNV). The know-how, which made it possible to acquire the certification in Japan, was distributed to overseas affiliated companies of Sony Chemicals Group. At present, all the business establishments in the world have acquired the certification. Sony Chemicals Corporation resigned the certification to DNV in September 2005 and shifted to OHS MS which has become the reference standard for the entire Sony Group, which is promoting the building of safer working environments.

Sony Miyagi Corporation
Started production of optical devices.

Due to the high recognition for element technologies concerning crystal formation, ultra-precision fabrication and thin-film deposition about ferrite and prism, the company started production of prisms for optical disks. At present, the company is producing Blu-ray Disc and optical devices for rear-projection TV sets.