Some rumors we received do say that Panasonic developed a sensor which has a better High-ISO quality (around +1stop quality gain) and better Dynamic Range. It is very likely that there will not be a Megapixel-number increase. In February and March both companies (Panasonic and Olympus) are going to unveil new cameras which will use the new sensor. Olympus should unveil one (or more?) FourThirds cameras and Panasonic a new MicroFourThirds model.
(FT2) One of our very new sources also told us that Panasonic has applied the backlight-tecnology to the FourThirds sensor.
Editos’s note: I always thought that backlight tecnology would only make sense on very small sensor so I can’t judge if the rumor is fake or if it referrs to a completely new type of backlight sensor which also works for bigger sensor.
UPDATE: Panasonic recently announced the new Panasonic 2.2/3-inch CMOS Image Sensor Based on Dual Resolution and Exposure Technique.