OLED Lighting  

Hundreds of millions of dollars have been invested in OLED

lighting
, especially in Europe, the US and Japan.


Currently, more than 130 companies and universities, and over a dozen organizations are working on Organic LED lighting.

oled_lighting_chandelier
Compared with the other major lighting technologies in the market - incandescent, fluorescent, high intensity discharge (HID) lamps, LEDs and electroluminescent (EL)  - Organic LED lighting has several advantages:
  • Organic LED lighting devices emit from the surface, can be made flexible/rollable, and even transparent like a window or reflective like a mirror.
  • Organic LED lights are thin, rugged, lightweight, and has fast switch-on times, wide operating temperatures, no noise and is environmentally friendly.
  • The power efficiency of Organic LED lights has also improved dramatically recently.
The unique features of OLED light panels are inspiring the imagination of designers, who are exploring various OLED light panel applications: windows, curtains, automotive light, decorative lighting, and wallpaper.

Philips Organic LED Lighting

Philips, the frontrunner in Organic LED Lighting research, has OLED panels called Philips Lumiblades available to purchase on-line.
Offered are a variety of shapes (circles, triangles, rectangles, hexagons, and what Philips calls "free-shapes")  for a variety of uses (clothing, furniture, vehicles, jewelry, art, and any other use you might imagine).
Philips plans to offer commercial products by 2010, and ultimately offering color panels the consumer can change (in 3-5 years) and ultimately flexible panels (in 5-8 years).

General Electric (GE) Organic LED Lighting

GE (General Electric) also very involved in Organic LED Lighting asks us to consider a light bulb of the future resembling wallpaper.
 GE, currently applying their knowledge to cell phones and television screens, will begin producing flexible OLED panels in 2010.
Having already made advancements in light quality and brightness, GE researchers plan to use this technology for general lighting applications.

OSRAM Organic LED Lighting

Ingo Maurer with OSRAM Lighting designed the first OLED lamp and befitting the technology is very futuristic in appearance.
 The lamp uses ten, thin OLED panels each measuring 132 X 33 millimeters.
This remains a huge milestone in Organic LED Lighting technology taking these thin panels from the realm of the unusual to a very practical application.

KODAK Lighting

Kodak's scientists originally discovered OLED materials in the 1970s. Since that time Kodak continues to research OLED applications for the automotive industry, consumer electronics, digital video technologies, industry, science, medicine, and telecommunications.
A current goal of Kodak is to provide OLED Energy Star compliant technology to consumers. More about KODAK OLED Lighting.