TDEL
Right now, all big-screen flat-panel TVs have one really major drawback: They cost too much. In an attempt to come up with a way to produce and market hang-on-the-wall TVs as inexpensively as CRT TVs, a relatively unknown Canadian company called iFire (a subsidiary of Westaim Corporation) has developed an innovative new technology called thick-film dielectric electro-luminescent displays, or TDEL for short. It is now teaming up with Sanyo and Dai Nippon Printing Co. of Japan to create low-priced flat panel displays in the mid 30-inch size category.
The thick film manufacturing process makes these screens 30 to 40 percent less costly than other flat panel technologies, iFire says, with comparable performance. It is based on inorganic electro-luminescence, or EL, which is well-established technology previously seen in applications such as Timex Indiglo watches. EL is based on generating light by applying an alternating electrical field to inorganic light-emitting phosphors. The company has developed a way to harness the blue-light emitted by EL, and convert it to the red, green, and blue colors needed for a color TV image. They call this process "Color-by-Blue." The blue phosphors essentially trigger another layer of red and green phosphors to produce the full color-TV spectrum. Why go to the trouble? Because generating a pixel of light using this technology is much simpler, and theoretically cheaper to manufacture, than plasma or LCD screens.
The company has already demonstrated a 17-inch screen using TDEL technology, and it says it's gearing up with Sanyo to produce 34-inch and larger panels, commercially, for sale as HDTV sets by 2005 that will be price-competitive with traditional direct-view CRT television sets.
