Surface-conduction Electron-emitter Display (SED) monitors are hailed as the next generation of television screens. Developments in 1986 and 1999 brought about a joint research team from Canon and Toshiba. Deciding that the venture had a future in the market, they formed SED Inc. in October 2004.
The biggest selling feature of the SED monitor is its ability to produce vivid color images that far surpass the types of display on offer today. With the advent of high-vision broadcasting and broadband network, along with digital cameras, camcorders and DVDS, demand is spreading for high quality, high definition displays. Businesses and the public are seeking larger screens with higher definition and image quality.
The common television we use today, which mainly uses a cathode ray tube (CRT), is not suitable to be enlarged beyond a certain point. If such television sets were enlarged any further than they are now, they would be significantly heavier and the depth of the units would have to be deeper. The challenge for manufacturers was to combine a new kind of display with the same picture quality as the CRT in a slimmer, larger unit.
The SED monitor has successfully met this challenge. This monitor uses Canon's proprietary electron-emission and microfabrication technologies. These were combined with Toshiba's CRT and mass production technologies for Liquid Crystal Displays (LCD) and semiconductors.
The SED monitor utilizes the collision of electrons with a phosphor-coated screen to produce light, as do CRTs. What makes this monitor unique is the incorporation of a very narrow gap, several nanometers wide, between two electric poles. When 10 volts of electricity are applied, electrons are emitted from one side of the slit. Some of these electrons spread to the other side of the slit, causing light to radiate when they clash with the phosphor-coated glass.
As the SED monitor works with the same light production theory as CRT monitors, it can provide a sharper, more dynamic color than LCDs and plasma displays. SEDs also have a faster video response time. As the monitor does not require electronic beam deflection, it is possible to make screens which are only a few centimeters thick.
Another major benefit of the SED monitor is low power consumption. The SED uses only two thirds of the power needed to run a plasma screen. It also has lower power consumption than LCDs and the traditional CRTs. This monitor will not only transform the way we view television and films, but because of its low power use, it will be earth-friendly too.