Canadian firm creates new low-cost flat screen TV

iFire, a Toronto electronics company, has developed a new phosphor-based, flat-panel HD television.

The 37in HDTV set is 2cm thick and weighs less than 2.2lbs, CNET News reported.

The company's thick-film dialectric electroluminescent technology (TDEL) is a new method to develop thinner, less expensive flat-panel televisions, the report said. It uses lightweight materials, thinner glass, and fewer electronics than plasma. And unlike an LCD, it has no backlight.

The iFire display system uses energy from a blue light source (in this case, a sheet of blue phosphor), which energizes fluorescent pigments that emit green or red light. By combining the blue with the green and red light, the full color of an RGB (red green blue) video is displayed.

The company has developed only pilot versions of the TDEL-based model so far, but it plans to form a manufacturing partnership for mass production by 2007.