LG Chem are currently producing OLED lighting panels in an Gen-2 fab (370x470mm) that can produce 7,000 substrates a month. They are producing the LG-OLED-041 is a 100x100 mm square panel that features 4,000K, CRI>80, 45 lm/W and 10,000 hours lifetime (LT70) at 3,000 nits. Now we hear that the company has plans to build a Gen-5 fab by 2014. They actually planned a Gen-4 line but decided to go for a larger fab to achieve higher volume and lower cost (and because Gen-5 tools are now available).
LG Chem will also optimize their current Gen-2 fab so it can produce more larger (150x150 mm) and more efficient panels (80 lm/W). They will do so by 2013 and so the price per lm will drop by 50%. The Gen-5 fab will be able to produce 135 lm/W 300x300 mm panels - and so price per lm will drop 95% when compared to 2012.
Technically, in order to achieve those advances, LG Chem plan to reduce photo-masks and organic materials usage by increasing glass substrate size from G2 to G5 and improving evaporation efficiency and material utilization. The company plans to implement the Frit System, which uses non-cavity glass.
Back in February LG Chem released an OLED lighting roadmap. By 2015 the company will offer flexible and transparent panels:
LG Chem announced their OLED lighting product plans back in 2009. Back then, LG Chem planned to use green and red PHOLED materials made by Universal Display, and SFC's deep-blue fluorescent OLED. We assume that the new efficient panels are using phosphorescent materials.
