Sony gave up on FED displays a few weeks ago, practically burying the technology that was supposed to become a competitor for the OLED standard. But there is also SED, surface-conduction electron-emitter displays, which has been around for a while and mostly flew under the radar since. But now Canon seems to step up research efforts to further develop SED technology.

The company filed two new SED-related patents (“Electron-emitting device, electron source, image display apparatus and manufacturing method of electron-emitting device”) in the US, No. 20090111350 and No. 20090108727. While the former depicts a solution on how electric fields in SEDs can be reduced in size, the latter deals with a way to improve picture quality. The patents were filed April 30.

Canon has been showcasing SED prototypes for a few years now (see the picture for an example from 2008) without ever getting serious about commercializing the technology. Toshiba used to team up with with Canon to develop SED technology but left the joint venture in 2007.