From Reuters:Sony said today it would establish a joint venture with a technology fund to develop a type of flat panel called field emission display.

Sony said it and Tokyo-based Technology Carve-out Investment Fund (TCI) would invest a total of 2.5 billion yen ($21.7 million) in the venture, which will start operations on Dec. 18 with about 30 employees.

Sony will take a 36.5 percent stake in the venture with TCI investing the remaining 63.5 percent.

Field emission display (FED) technology was invented in the 1970s as a possible alternative to the traditional cathode-ray tube TV but has never been commercialised, losing out to liquid-crystal displays and plasma displays in the flat panel race.

Toshiba Corp. and Canon Inc. are working together on a technology similar to FED called surface-conduction electron-emitter display (SED), aiming to compete with LCD and plasma technology in the fast-growing flat TV market.

FED and SED TV technology can be use to develop flat displays that are bright, consume relatively little electricity and have wide viewing angles, but it remains unclear whether they will ever be commercially viable.

Interesting development. I’d like to follow this one closely to see how they develop FED technology to compete with SED television technology.

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