GE announced what it calls a milestone in development of organic light-emitting diode (OLED) lighting technology produced in collaboration between GE Global Research, GE Lighting and Konica Minolta. The companies' researchers have demonstrated illumination-quality white OLEDs using “solution-coatable” materials and producing 56 lumens per Watt, a milestone essential for producing OLEDs at a low cost.
Anil Duggal, GE's OLED lighting technology leader, made the announcement this week during a presentation at the International Symposium on the Science and Technology of Light Sources being held in Eindhoven, Netherlands.
GE and KM plan to manufacture OLEDs using high-speed, roll-to-roll processes rather than the vacuum-based batch processes used by companies in the OLED display industry. Roll-to-roll processing is key to making OLEDs commercially viable for general lighting applications. Solution, or wet coating, is the highest throughput manufacturing method for coating the organic layers that are the essence of an OLED lighting device.
John Strainic, global product general manager for GE Lighting, the business that will commercialize GE OLEDs, said, “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.”
Researchers and product development teams from GE and KM have been working together on OLED technology since 2007.