Canon Inc. and Toshiba Corp. have formed a joint venture, called SED Inc., to commercialize the Surface Conduction Electron Emitter Display (SED), a technology they’ve developed together. The new company will be capitalized at 1 billion yen ($9 million), and the plan is to spend more than 200 billion yen ($1.8 billion) over the next several years. Initial production is planned to occur by next summer at a Canon facility, while the bulk of the funds will be used to build a new factory at a Toshiba site.

SED is one of a family of technologies related to the field-emission display (FED). FEDs were a market failure, but their legacy has been kept alive in the form of newer options that may prove more successful. Perhaps the most talked-about option is the carbon nanotube-based FED that’s now being pursued by Samsung, Mitsubishi, Motorola, cDream, Sony and Ise Electronics. Other FED approaches are under development by Philips, Hitachi, Pioneer, Matsushita and Printable Field Emitters.

These efforts have been going on since the 1990s or earlier, and work on SED technology, also called the surface-conduction emitter (SCE), is no exception. Canon began researching SED technology in 1986, and began joint development activities with Toshiba in 1999 to commercialize an SED product. This move to form a joint venture is the latest step in SED development.

The size of the investment indicates that both companies feel SEDs are very promising technology. However, SED remains unproven because the companies have not released demonstration panels, licensed the technology, released detailed specifications or otherwise primed the market. The main downfall of the FED was manufacturing difficulty, and that’s exactly the part of this venture yet to be accomplished.

Competition is also an issue. Canon and Toshiba stated that they expect SED technology to do well in display products larger than 32 in. diagonally, while the LCD would serve in panels smaller than that. However, LCDs already are sold in sizes larger than 40 in., and many other technologies are vying for the same space, such as PDPs and several types of projection systems.

Nonetheless, a CRT alternative that looks as visually attractive, but is thin and much lighter weight, is highly appealing. This dream drives the continued investment in the FED’s sister technologies. Perhaps one will prove viable and consumers will no longer have to choose between a small, bulky CRT and a larger, flat panel that is very expensive and not quite as good-looking.

SED could be the best of both worlds, but the road to the marketplace will be tough.

^{Kimberly Allen, Ph.D. is director of technology and strategic research for iSuppli Corp. Contact her at kallen@isuppli.com. This article has been reprinted with permission from iSuppli Corp.}