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Green White Light: Oled for Lighting Explained

OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diodes) are materials that emit light when current is passed through them. OLED are used today to make beautiful and efficient displays in MP3 players, mobile phones and other gadgets, and the world’s first OLED-TV can be bougt from Sony. Because OLEDs emit light, it is also possible use the technology to create white light.

OLEDs are very power efficient and they can be made very thin. An OLED light bulb is actually a thin film of material that emits bright white light. Because OLEDs can be flexible, or even transparent, exciting new OLED lamp designs are possible.

OLEDs are also the most ‘green’ light source. Not only are they super efficient, but OLEDs do not contain any ‘bad’ metals such as mercury, which is present in efficient CFL lamps. So OLEDs are really the future lighting source, when all things are considered.

In April 2008, OSRAM has announced the world’s first OLED lamp. It was designed by lighting designer Ingo Maurer, uses 10 OLED light panels, sized 132 x 33 millimeters. The OLED bulb in this lamp are actually thin square sheets that emit light. This lamp is more of a prototype than a commercial product – only 25 will be made, and the price is more than 25,000euro. But it sure is an important milestone on the path for OLED lighting.

Several companies are working towards white OLED light products. GE is hoping to get products out by 2010, and OSRAM is planning products for 2011-12, even though, like we said, they already introduced their first OLED lamp in 2008.

Philips is already shipping product samples and OLED lighting kits, and is hoping to have commercial products as early as 2009. Other companies involved in white OLED lighting are Konica Minolta (plans to have products by 2011), Universal Display (WOLED technology), and Kodak.The EU is funding several OLED lighting projects, while in Japan a few companies have joined forces to create Lumiotec – a JV to study the possibilities of OLED light bulbs.

We’re yet to see which company (or companies) will win the race for OLED lighting. But we’re seeing more and more evidence that OLEDs will play an important role in our green-light future.



By: Ron Mertens

About the Author:

Ron Mertens has been following OLEDs since 1998, and is the editor of OLED-Info, the web’s leading OLED display information web site. OLED-Info is published by Metalgrass software, who provides shareware for AdSense publishers and several other web sites.



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