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After a decade of secret research, Panasonic has successfully developed mini plasma screens that it hopes will find their way into everything from cell phones to gas pumps.

“Plasma screen” may be synonymous with the hulking 42-inch sets you see lighting up aisles down at your local appliance retailer, but Panasonic has recently succeeded in a secret effort to make the same technology much, much smaller. At a press conference on Tuesday, Panasonic revealed the fruits of its R&D efforts, and plans to put compact plasma screens in everything from cell phones to gas pumps.

“For nearly a decade, Panasonic's engineers have been secretly working on a thin, lightweight low-voltage compact plasma display,” said Mark Balsama, Panasonic’s former group manager of the Communications Systems division, who was recently coaxed out of retirement. According to Balsma, the displays engineers eventually cooked up rival OLED displays for brightness, contrast and thinness, and can be manufactured for much less money.

The technology will be made possible in part through a licensing agreement with AbleComm, a long-time Panasonic partner. Oddly enough, the part Panasonic sourced from the company was originally a proprietary component for high-efficiency headsets, but turned out to be exactly what engineers needed to complete the compact plasma displays.

Panasonic sees the miniature plasma screens replacing LCDs in many applications, including all types of phones, intercom monitors, fax machines, gas pumps, ATMs, camera viewfinders, MP3 players, vending machines, automotive displays, digital photo frames, and appliance touch screens. HP has even licensed the technology for two years to include mini-plasma screens in its printers.

Balsama said that Panasonic’s consumer and business telephone products will be the first to get the new screens, and will debut this fall.