Sep 15 2006
The lighting giant Osram is increasing its research into OLED light sources. The company is concentrating on small molecule designs and expects to have commercial products relatively soon. Marion Reichl, Osram Opto Semiconductor Press Officer, says ‘In a few years we will see first OLED lighting products which will penetrate the lighting market more and more as the technology matures’.
Organic Light Emitting Diodes (OLEDs) are the new way of making light. Where traditional lighting involves heating metal filaments or exciting gases until they fluoresce, OLEDs rely on the properties of certain polymers and small molecules to fluoresce or phosphoresce directly, when a voltage is applied across them.
These new OLED lights aren’t tiny indicators on control panels. They’re much higher intensity and are designed to provide true space lighting, as replacements for incandescent or fluorescent sources. With record light intensities of up to 110lm/W recently recorded for monochrome OLEDs and up to 18lm/W for white-light devices, they already outperform incandescent lights and are on a level with halogen lamps.
Merck will also present their novel OLED materials and innovative device design at the Lighting and Signage Symposium at the “2nd Plastic Electronics Conference & Showcase” on October 24 & 25, 2006 in Frankfurt, Germany. Osram and other prominent companies such as GE Lighting and Philips Lighting will also shed a light on OLEDs in the same symposium as will Research Institutes from China, Japan and the USA.
About “Plastic Electronics Conference & Showcase 2006”
The “Plastic Electronics Conference & Showcase”, an international conference with an accompanying information exhibition, takes place October 24 & 25, 2006 at the Sheraton Frankfurt Hotel & Towers, located adjacent to the premises of the Frankfurt Rhein-Main Airport, in Germany. All info about venue and program can be found at: www.plastictronics.org
In accordance with the motto “Where Science and Industry Meet“, this forum for the information exchange between researchers and industry is focusing entirely upon the new fields of application which the electrically conductive polymers are opening up. The advantage of polymers lies in their comparably simple and low-cost processibility. Electro-conductive polymers are nowadays already used in display- and solar technology as well as in sensors. A huge market potential is also available in the use of simple plastic electronic systems such as RFID, in low cost biomedical sensors, data storage or consumer products. Latest studies estimate a market volume for organic electronics of 30 billion US-Dollars by the year 2015.