Chapter 7 - OLEDS

Chapter 7
OLEDs
Wouldn’t you like a high-definition TV that is 80 inches wide and less than a quarter-inch thick, uses less power than most TVs and can be rolled up when you're not using it and viewed "heads up" in your car or a display monitor built into your clothing? These things are coming soon with a technology called organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs).  OLEDs are solid-state devices composed of thin films of organic molecules that create light with  electricity but provide brighter, crisper displays on electronic devices and use less power than conventional light-emitting diodes (LEDs) or liquid crystal displays (LCDs) .¹

56 lumens-per-watt efficiency achievement proves that flexible, white OLED lighting devices are inexpensive using "solution-coatable" materials.  NISKAYUNA, NEW YORK & CLEVELAND, OHIO (JULY, 2010) - GE Global Research for the General Electric Company (NYSE: GE), GE Lighting and Konica Minolta (KM) have achieved a major breakthrough to making high-efficiency organic light-emitting diode (OLED) lighting devices a reality with illumination-quality white OLEDs using "solution-coatable" materials that are essential for producing OLEDs at a low cost.

GE's OLED lighting technology leader made the announcement during a presentation at the International Symposium on the Science and Technology of Light Sources being held in Eindhoven, Netherlands.  "We have produced high-performance white OLED lighting devices with a commercially viable lifetime using 'solution coating' rather than 'vacuum coating' processes. This allows us to make use of the high volume roll-to-roll manufacturing infrastructure that already has been perfected in the printing industry."

GE and KM plan to use high-speed, roll-to-roll processes rather than the vacuum-based batch processes making OLEDs commercially viable for general lighting applications. Solution, or wet coating, is the highest throughput manufacturing method for coating the organic layers.

John Strainic, global product general manager for GE Lighting added, "This type of coating is ideally suited for roll-to-roll processing and critical to enabling the production of OLEDs at high speeds. In simple terms, this latest achievement means we're starting to see the OLED light at the end of the tunnel."  GE and KM have been working together on OLED technology since 2007. 

OLEDs are thin, organic materials sandwiched between two electrodes that illuminate when an electrical charge is applied the next evolution in lighting products providing an entirely different way for people to light their homes or businesses and improved levels of efficiency and environmental performance. The two companies have plans to introduce their first flexible OLED lighting product in 2011.²

¹http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/oled.htm

²http://www.gelighting.com/eu/resources/press_room/OLED_announcement_EU.html