New Display Tech Revealed

[Gregg Lengling]

Technology innovation is not only supposed to lead to a better mousetrap, it's also supposed to lead to lower costs. That's precisely the idea behind a new display technology that promises inexpensive high-definition monitors.



The SED (surface-conduction electron-emitter display) is a concept that works on the same basic principle as a CRT. In a CRT monitor, an electron gun at the back of a tube blasts electrons at phosphors on the screen to create an image.

Rather than using an electron gun, an SED uses a film of individual electron emitters coated on a glass plate and positioned a few millimeters behind another glass plate coated with phosphor. This design allows for many more pixels per square inch and for large, flat panels that are less than 4 inches deep.


Canon and Toshiba have been jointly developing the technology for four years. Little, however, was known about SEDs until now.

"I can say that they will be in the plasma screen size range," says Scott Ramirez, vice president of marketing at Toshiba. Toshiba plans to introduce SEDs sometime in 2004.

With sharper pictures, superior brightness, more realistic images, and improved viewing angles, SEDs could displace plasma, DLP, and other high-definition monitors. (For more information, see "The Big Screen.") SEDs also consume less than half the power used by CRT monitors, or about a third of the energy used by plasma screens. The big question: How much will they cost? Toshiba is mum for now, but look for word later this year.