A joint venture established by Canon and Toshiba to develop and commercialize a new flat-panel display technology called SED (surface-conduction electron-emitter display) will begin trial production of displays this week.
SED technology has been under development for more than 20 years and is being positioned by Canon and Toshiba as a better option for large-screen TVs than PDP (plasma display panel) technology. SED panels can produce pictures that are as bright as CRTs (cathode ray tubes), use up to one-third less power than equivalent size PDPs and don't have the slight time delay sometimes seen with some other flat-panel displays, according to the companies.Canon and Toshiba are hoping to see the first SED televisions available in Japan sometime in the first half of next year.
But before those TVs can come to market the companies must be able to mass produce the SED panels.
As part of their work towards this goal they established SED Inc. in October last year and committed ¥200 billion (US$1.8 billion) towards SED research, development, production and marketing.
