Toshiba provided its latest sneak-peak this month at its SED (surface-conduction electron-emitter display) technology at Internationale Funkaustellung (IFA) 2005 in Berlin. Its SED flat panel will support full HD resolution (1,920 x 1,080), according to company statements. Its first SED panels to be introduced into the marketplace, in a joint venture with camera maker Canon, will be 50-inch (diagonal).
Toshiba maintains that SED can deliver video quality comparable to CRT monitors, with a response time of less than a millisecond. Like traditional CRT picture tubes, SED is based on the targeted emission of electrons. When the emissions hit the screen, the electrons cause a phosphor-based fluorescent layer in the glass surface to light up.
CRTs have a single bundled electron beam that is scattered horizontally and vertically at the point of contact, in order to build up the picture line by line. But Toshiba reports that SED screens, instead, have as many electron emitters as there are pixels on the screen. Since there is no need to scatter the electron beams, It's possible, according to Toshiba, to make much larger SED displays than possible using traditional CRT technology (where images noticeably start to lose definition after about 27-inches diagonal).
SED also has no need for a separate backlighting mechanism, according to the company, because light is provided by electrons colliding with the phosphor-coated screen. Therefore, video quality no longer depends on maintaining only certain viewing angles. Toshiba hopes to start shipping product by next spring.
