Canon has liquidated a subsidiary that was commercialising a flat panel display technology, SED.
The company’s Board of Directors announced that the subsidiary, SED Inc, would
be dissolved on September 30, 2010, citing a decline in flat panel
display prices.
SED Inc had been working on what Canon described as the
“next generation of flat-panel displays” - Surface-conduction Electron-emitter Displays. The new electron source
system had been used successfully in a prototype that was said to
achieve high levels of brightness, colour and quality performance.
However, in a notice
regarding the liquidation, Canon said: “In recent years, faced with flat-panel television declines
that have been larger and more rapid than expected, Canon, determined that
securing appropriate profitability would prove difficult”.
Canon has pledged to continue SED panel-related research and development activities.