SED TV Reviews

Since April, the number of employees at SED Inc., Canon’s SED TV panel spin-off has increased from 387 to 635. In combination with the verdict in the Nano vs. Canon case, this is a good indication of a bright future for SED TV.

One question that arises is whether or not Canon will use the Nano technology for the SED panels, or their own that they have been working on since last year.

Thanks to Bryan for the tip.

AUSTIN, TX, Jul 28, 2008 (MARKET WIRE via COMTEX) — Applied Nanotech Holdings, Inc. announced that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit issued its opinion in its litigation with Canon, Inc. The appeals court in part affirmed, and in part reversed, the rulings of the district court. While the appeals court accepted, without deciding, the district court’s decision that SED, Inc. as originally formed did not qualify as a Canon subsidiary, and that Canon had materially breached the contract, it found that termination of the license agreement was not an appropriate remedy. The appeals court also ruled that the restructured SED, Inc., which is 100% owned by Canon, now qualifies as a Canon subsidiary. The appeals court denied Applied Nanotech’s appeal that the district court had improperly excluded certain evidence from the trial. The decision reinstates Canon’s non-exclusive license to substantially all of Applied Nanotech’s field emission patents, excluding certain display applications. The entire ruling can be found at the court’s website at www.ca5.uscourts.gov.

from www.marketwatch.com

Canon is still working on getting an SED TV produced with a panel using their own technology. Hopefully we will see a Canon SED TV display at both CEATEC in Japan starting September 30th and CES2009 in Las Vegas next January.

In my opinion, the pressure on Canon has just increased with the announcement of the imminent (2009) production of FED TVs or field emission displays from FET, a spin-off from Sony. See FED TV link. Their plans include a 60″ consumer model FED TV after beginning with FED monitor shipments for broadcast and medical applications.

Also imminent, hopefully before 2009, is the decision in the Nano-Proprietary vs. Canon licensing dispute. The last court date was supposed to be June 4 with the decision expected within the next few months.

In any case, the next 6 months are very important for the future of SED television. With realistic sized OLED TV on the horizon and the expected competition from Field Emission Technologies, Canon needs to announce SED TV production to remain ahead of the pack.

Despite the lack of any news the last few months, Canon is still working away at SED TV. As part of Phase III of the Canon Excellent Global Corporation Plan, the following is No. 1 of their five key stategies:

“1. As we celebrate Canon’s 70th anniversary, we aim to achieve the overwhelming No. 1 position in existing businesses that have supported our growth to date. To enhance our market competitiveness, we will secure a new technological edge through the development of key components and key devices and the reinforcement of platform technologies. We will also work to bring to fruition the three display businesses currently under development: SED, organic LED displays, and projection displays.”

Interesting to see OLED TV in there. We haven’t heard too much from Canon on that yet.

Thanks to Bryan for the tip.

Just an update on Canon’s SED Inc. In Canon’s R&D Manufacturing and Marketing Subsidiaries and Affiliates list, SED Inc. is listed as currently having 387 employees and Activities / Production items is listed as SED panels. The address, if anyone would like to check it out is;

22-5, Tamura 9-chome, Hiratsuka-shi, Kanagawa 254-0013, Japan

I think we’re all looking forward to hearing more about the success of Canon’s new SED TV technology that avoids the original Nano patents.

Full list at: Canon R&D

Thanks to Bryan for the info.

Canon has a reissue patent covering SED TV technology. United States Patent RE40,062 was reissued February 12, 2008. It apparently has some modifications from previous SED TV patents. This may be the beginning of Canon’s attempt to produce  SED panels without using the Nano-Proprietary patented technology.

Here’s an excerpt:

Yoshioka , et al. February 12, 2008

Display device with electron-emitting device with electron-emitting region insulated from electrodes

Abstract

A display device includes an electron-emitting device which is a laminate of an insulating layer and a pair of opposing electrodes formed on a planar substrate. A portion of the insulating layer is between the electrodes and contains fine particles of an electron emitting substance, that portion acting as an electron emitting region. Electrons are emitted from the electron emission region by applying a voltage to the electrodes, thereby stimulating a phosphorous to emit light.

Inventors: Yoshioka; Seishiro (Hiratsuka, JP), Nomura; Ichiro (Atsugi, JP), Suzuki; Hidetoshi (Yokohama, JP), Takeda; Toshihiko (Yokohama, JP), Kaneko; Tetsuya (Yokohama, JP), Banno; Yoshikazu (Machida, JP), Yokono; Kojiro (Yokohama, JP)

For a much more detailed review by someone who knows what he’s talking about, check out the full story at donpatent.blogspot.com

Technorati Tags: Canon, SED TV, Nano-Proprietary

I’m not anticipating any SED TV news from Canon in the next few months. This post just covers some basic SED TV information.
About Canon > Canon Inc. Corporate Profile > Board of Directors
>
>
> (As of January 1, 2008)
> Chairman & CEO
> Fujio Mitarai
> President & COO
> Tsuneji Uchida
> Vice President
> Toshizo Tanaka Group Executive, Policy & Economy Research Headquarters

and a bit farther down,
> Director
> Kazunori Fukuma President & CEO, SED Inc.

So it appears that SED Inc is still being directed as a wholly owned subsidiary of Canon.

I haven’t had too many SED TV images on this blog but I’ll post what I think is my favorite. I’m afraid I can’t find the original source so I’d appreciate any comments regarding the photo and/or the original source. Thanks.

Thanks to Bryan for the help.

Technorati Tags: SED TV, Canon, SED Inc.

Despite the recent news from Canon on the further development of SED TV, it won’t be at CES2008. However, a number of OLED TV models from Sony and Samsung will be on display. Sony also announced yesterday that the XEL-1 OLED TV will be for sale in the US starting this month for about $2500 from Sony Style.

Technorati Tags: SED TV, OLED TV, Sony XEL-1

Great news for SED TV Fans. As 2007 was drawing to a close and all looked fairly bleak, Canon has come out with the news that they have started development of a new electron emitter display technology that doesn’t use the Nano-Proprietary patented technology.

It’s too early to tell when they may even have SED TV display models available but this is fantastic news for those looking forward to the benefits of surface-conduction electron-emitter display technology. Happy New Year!

Thanks to Ron, Bryan and Bloomberg for the tips!

Technorati Tags: SED TV, Canon SED, Canon, Nano-Proprietary

It’s been a tumultuous year for the diehard fans of SED TV technology.  The year started with the cancellation of the Canon / Toshiba SED Inc SED TV display at CES2007. This also caused the cancellation of my plans to visit Vegas.

Next came the buyout of all of Toshiba’s share of SED Inc. by Canon, followed by the disappearance of SED TV from the Toshiba website with the following message: “Sorry, this site has closed Thank you for using it for a long time. Please continue your favors toward the Toshiba homepage in the future.”

Next, “Displaying typical Canon arrogance Company Chairman Fujio Mitarai has claimed that he expects his company to win a patent-related dispute in the United States and pursue its plan to enter the flat-panel television market.”

Nano and Canon battled in court and nothing positive came from that outcome.

A further delay was announced in SED TV production and as far as I can tell, it will be a long one. There were rumours of Samsung looking at SED licencing from Nano Prorietary but nothing further has come of this.

Many of the companies involved in this mess are focusing on OLED TV technology now in an effort to catch up with Sony.

As for 2008, I don’t expect much news on SED TV, but I will leave you with Season’s greetings and best wishes for 2008.

Technorati Tags: SED TV, Canon, Toshiba, Nano-Proprietary, Samsung, Sony