Fraunhofer Institute for Photonic Microsystems (Fraunhofer IPMS) - Page 2

The Fraunhofer first demonstrated its bi-directional OLED microdisplays in 2009 - these display use photodetectors embedded between the OLED pixels to enable unique applications such as eye-tracking and more.

The Fraunhofer now suggests a new use for such displays. The BiClean project looked into the possibility of embedding bi-directional OLED microdisplays in solar panels or pipes, to detect contamination in early stages. The display project light at different colors, and the photodetectors can sense the surface status in real time - and so it is possible to know whether it is necessary to clean the surface.

In 2018 the Fraunhofer FEP institute announced it is starting to offer a design kit that includes several flexible and transparent OLED lighting panels. The Monarch Kit includes several colored butterflies samples, and the researchers were kind enough to send us one such kit for a short review.

So first of all, these OLEDs look beautiful. They shine a beautiful uniform colored light and are very nicely done. There's not much functionality, but it shows the potential of flexible OLED lighting quite nicely.

A few days ago the Fraunhofer FEP institute announced that it developed OLED light strips made from tiled flexible OLED lighting panels, and now we have these nice looking strips on video:

The video was taken at Fraunhofer FEP's booth at the International Symposium on Automotive Lighting 2019 in Darmstadt, Germany. The strips, produced in a sheet-to-sheet process can be connected without creating visible interruptions to the active surface. This makes it possible to produce infinitely long OLED light strips. Each segment can be controlled individually - so that different dimming or dynamic signalling can be achieved.

In 2016 the EU launched the PI-SCALE project, which established a European-wide roll-to-roll flexible OLED lighting pilot production line, with an aim to enable companies of all sizes to quickly and cost effectively test and scale up their flexible OLED lighting concepts. In 2018 the EU has launched a €14 million initiative within PI-SCALE called LYTEUS, which provides the expertise and capability required to progress an OLED lighting concept from an idea and into a commercialized product.

The PI-SCALE project has successfully been completed, and the Fruanhofer FEP institute now announced that following a meeting with the EU Commission representatives, it was decided that the OLED lighting pilot line services will continue to be funded, under the lead of the Fraunhofer FEP. The pilot line service will continue under the name LYTEUS.

The Fraunhofer FEP announced that it has developed a new OLED Microdisplay specifically for industrial Augmented Reality (AR) data glasses.

The new microdisplay features a 720p (1280x720) resolution with a diagonal size of 0.64-inch (subpixel size is 5.5 micron). The power consumption is 160 milliwatt at 120 fps. The Fraunhofer says that the new display features simple driving electronics for an easy integration into portable systems and is already available as evaluation kit.

The Fraunhofer FEP institute has teamed up with OLED lighting developer EMDE development of light to demonstrate wearable OLED lighting based on flexible OLEDs integrated into textile designs. The OLED demonstration will be unveiled at LOPEC 2019.

This project is part of the EU-funded PI-SCALE project, which recently demonstrated 15 meters long flexible OLED lighting panels. The Fraunhofer FEP says that they have taken a major step forward for the economical fabrication of OLED lighting devices based on the roll to roll process.

The Fraunhofer FEP institute has teamed up with Korean-based LetinAR to develop an ultra-low-power OLED microdisplay based optic lens for AR applications. The Fraunhofer and LetinAR will present the new technology at MWC 2019.

LetinAR's PinMR technology uses the Pinhole Effect with tiny mirrors and embedded them with eyeglass lenses. The PinMR mirrors reflect the light generated by a microdisplay and guide it into the user's pupils. Users may view the virtual image created via microdisplay equipped with magnifying see-through optics as well as the image from the real world at ease. Human eyes cannot detect the mirrors, which are smaller than pupils. Only the virtual image formed by the light reflected by those mirrors is visible.

Researchers from the Fraunhofer FEP Institute developed a miniaturized OLED-on-silicon based phosphorescence sensor. Such sensors are used today typically for oxygen concentration measurement. The researchers say that this technology enables a small-sized sensor that offers a fast and precise evaluation. In the future such sensors could be produced at a relatively low cost.

The new sensor is based on a chemical marker that is excited by modulated blue OLED light. The phosphorescent response of the marker is then detected directly inside the sensor chip. The OLED device is 4.7 x 2.2 mm in size. The researchers hope to be able to reduce the size of the entire chip down to 2 x 2 mm.

The Fraunhofer FEP institute, the Holst Center and other partners have developed a 15-meter long OLED lighting panel, the longer OLED device ever (beating their own 2017 record of a 10-meter OLED). This work was done as part of the Lyteus, the EU's €14 million initiative within PI-SCALE.

The partners in this project say that this is the first OLED produced using a new unique roll-to-roll (R2R) process that combines the performance of an evaporated OLED stack with solution processing of auxiliary layers.