The International Business Machines Corporation, which has a joint venture with the Toshiba Corporation, is also doing some work on flat-panel technology on its own, industry executives say.

Active matrix is a flat-panel technology that produces images almost as bright and sharp as those on a desktop video monitor.

There are also the two flat-panel technologies, with plasma screens dominating the market at 40 inches and up, and L.C.D.'s dominating the market for smaller flat-panel units.

While IEL displays quickly disappeared from laptops, their durability compared with that of other flat-panel technologies found them lasting homes elsewhere.

With improvements in flat-panel technology, CBCT has been able to provide volumetric imaging, and allows for radiographic or fluoroscopic monitoring throughout the treatment process.

Further, Government grants previously made to the flat-panel display industry have been entirely allocated to an older flat-panel technology, liquid crystal display, or LCD.

The small American companies working on flat-panel technology, which filed the initial complaints in Washington against Japanese competitors, said that unless the United States took action the domestic industry would slowly die.

And Sony's notoriously picky engineers debated new flat-panel technologies for years and ultimately rejected both plasma and L.C.D. technologies as inferior.

Today there remains two competing flat-panel technologies: plasma and LCD.