HD Beat notes that Westaim hopes to bring the thick-film dielectric electroluminescent technology (TDEL) screens to market in 2007. They’ve been following this technology since 2004, though I missed it somewhere. Supposedly TDEL flat panels are cheaper than LCDs and plasmas. And the picture quality is supposed to be good too! Are there no drawbacks? Price, right? Well, Westaim’s 34″ flat panel is supposed to come in at less than $1000. I don’t know what resolution or quality that display will be, but it sounds promising.

How does it work? “It involves no gases, liquids or vacuums and requires no backlighting. Instead the materials are layered directly onto the glass which they say provides better PQ and a wider viewing angle, with half the production cost of LCDs.” Pretty cool sounding. I went to the iFire website and looked up what they’re doing. It looks different than anything I’ve seen. The only thing that worries me (for now) is that the light source is blue phosphors. Does this mean the panel is subject to burn-in?

Is this going to be the SED killer? HDTV watchers like me have been waiting for a flat panel without the disadvantages of LCDs and plasmas. SED looks promising, but will probably be expensive and suffer from burn-in. Will TDEL be the new rage? Time will tell.

Solid state TDEL flat panel HDTVs — still — coming soon