FED

6/19/99

Field Effect Display (FED): FEDs are an alternative flat panel display technology that may come to market in the next few years. Like Liquid Crystal Displays (LCD)s the displays are thin, flat, and lightweight. Unlike LCDs and like Cathode Ray Tubes (CRT)s, FEDs work by emitting color rather than by modulating transmitted or reflected light.

FEDs use phosphorescent dots like CRTs but stimulate them with a large number of solid state emitters positioned behind the screen instead of with an electron beam. Like a CRT, FEDs are bright, readable in direct sunlight and do not have off axis viewing angle problems. FEDs also have less persistence than LCD and thus can better handle rapidly changing material such as movies. Because there are many emitters for each pixel, a bad element does not mean a dead pixel as is the case in LCDs.

Problems include limited lifetime of the emitter elements and the low persistence of FED phosphors which can lead to flicker problems.

As of early 1999, samples of 320*240 pixel panels are shipping. Larger panels are expected in the future.