A few days ago I posted about LCD screens reaching sizes comparable with Plasma technologies. Today, iFire Technology demonstrated a high-definition 34-inch prototype display to an audience of flat panel scientists and industry peers at the annual Society for Information Display conference held here in Seattle. The 34-inch color display is the largest flat panel ever produced using inorganic electroluminescent technology. Based on iFire’s proprietary thick-film dielectric electroluminescent technology, the 34-inch prototype is also the first native high definition display of its kind. With a format of 1280 x 768 pixels, the display is capable of handling both 720p video and XGA-class computer data. The exciting thing about this is that the 34-inch iFire display was fabricated using low-cost processes that are expected to be directly transferred to commercial production. iFire expects its displays to have a significant manufacturing cost advantage over other flat panel technologies. iFire commissioned an independent study to compare its manufacturing model against both LCD and PDP, in a generation 6 manufacturing environment. The study, conducted by Industrial Design and Construction indicated that iFire could have an estimated 30 to 50% advantage in both capital and module costs. Which means that this may be the technology that gets 30+” flat panel displays in our home for less than $2k! iFire plans to begin pilot production of 34-inch HDTV display modules in 2005. The company also has a non-exclusive technology collaboration agreement with Sanyo Electric Co. of Japan, which includes development work on 34-inch panels.