Lighting the future | OLED and FOLED® technology

by Karl on August 16, 2010

With lighting consuming over 22% of the total electricity produced here in the U.S., more energy-efficient lighting products are in high demand. Based on the company’s UniversalPHOLED™ technology and materials, white OLEDs have the potential to offer power efficiencies that are superior to those for today’s incandescent bulbs and fluorescent tubes.

With the tremendous advances that have been made in this area, a number of our customers and partners have been exhibiting white OLED prototypes at industry conferences and major trade shows.

These include:- LG Chem has announced that they plan to commercialize white OLEDs for lighting applications. In October 2009, they exhibited a variety of white OLED product concepts at FPD/Green Devices’09 in Yokohama, Japan using our UniversalPHOLED technology and materials. As shown here, LG Chem has developed a set of white OLED prototypes (5 cm x 5 cm and 10 cm x 10 cm) that illustrate the beautiful, bright, and uniform light emission of an OLED.

The novel and truly exciting features of Universal Display’s proprietary FOLED® flexible technology have the potential to engender a wide variety of new display and lighting products. With FOLED technology still under development today, the first commercial FOLED displays are targeted for use in portable electronics and lighting tiles — leveraging their advantages in ruggedness, thinness and light weight. Based on Universal Display’s FOLED technology roadmap, the next generation of FOLEDs may provide added functionality through increased conformability. This feature may open up a wide range of new product opportunities – ranging from new shaped cell phone designs to novel communication devices that are wearable, for example, on the cuff of your shirtsleeve or your backpack. Watch the video.

Continued progress in Universal Display’s FOLED roadmap may, then, enable the realization of Universal Display’s innovative product concept, the Universal Communication Device (UCD). Envisioned as a truly portable, cell phone-like communication device, the UCD is designed to offer advanced voice and data communication capabilities — via a roll-out, full-color, full-motion video display that’s as flexible as it is energy-efficient. Additional product ideas based on our FOLED technology (and TOLED transparent OLED technology) include:

· Foldable, electronic, daily-refreshable newspapers

· Ultra-lightweight and thin, wall-size television monitors

· Curved, high-contrast automotive instrumentation displays

· Heads-up instrumentation for aircraft and automotive windshields

· Office windows, walls and partitions that double as computer screens

· Color-changing lighting panels and light walls for home and office

With FOLED technology development advancing well, initial flexible OLED products may be ready for the market as soon as within the next few years. With continued product innovation enabled by these new FOLED performance features, we believe that the potential may be much greater.

Images: LG top / Sony bottom/Universal Display Corporation