Palladium is set to have a large impact on the next phase of development in the television world.

Canon and Toshiba have announced a new joint venture to develop and distribute a new flat-panel display technology known as surface-conduction electron-emitter display (SED).

Although SED technology has been in development for the past 20 years, the joint venture is designed to commercialise the equipment so that it can become an alternative flat screen option to plasma display panel (PDP) technology.

PDP screens are becoming increasingly popular, and as such Canon and Toshiba are looking to capitalise on the flat screen market by developing SED screens for mass market.

SED is created through sandwiching two glass plates together, with a vacuum between them. Beads of palladium are then dotted on the inner plate, while the outside plate is a matrix of coloured phosphor dots and a transparent electrode.

Whe a current is passed through the palladium beads during manufacture, in the presence of a hydrocarbon gas, the beads split open to form a carbon-coated gap just a few nanometres wide. In operation, electrons fired from the bead excite the phosphor dots to form an image.


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