OLED Lifetime: introduction and market status - Page 13

I just got word from Philips that the company intends to soon launch their first own OLED luminaire for office and retail. Philips has high hopes for this luminaire.

The luminaire is modular, and each module will use four of the Philips newest OLED panels which will be unveiled at the Light + Building show in April. Philips says that this lamp will meet "lighting norms" for workplaces.

Updated: This story had some inaccuracies and is now updated with new information from First-O-Lite

China's First-O-Lite says they developed an efficient (111.7 lm/W at 1,000 cd/m²) hybrid OLED lighting device (2 cm²). This is a hybrid device that uses a fluorescent blue emitter along with red and blue phosphorescent emitters. The company says that this is probably the most efficient hybrid OLED device ever produced that can meet the Energy Star color requirements.

First-O-Lite has established a volume production fab and will soon start producing OLED panels. These will feature over 55 lm/W (at 3,000 cd/m²) and will use the company's external light extraction technology.

Last month Ignis Innovation announced that they began producing some 55" OLED TV evaluation samples for display makers to test their MaxLife compensation technology. The company now tells us that the first sample panel arrived at their offices, and they will start fulfilling orders (to display makers and OEMs) in about two weeks.

The company did some initial measurements, and they say that this panel offers the world's lowest power consumption (20% lower than LG and Samsung's current OLED TVs), longest lifetime (a significant boost over existing OLED panels). The panels are highly uniform (much better than the OLED TVs no the market).

BASF has been working on a blue phosphorescent OLED emitter for quite some time - in fact the company says they have started developing an iridium-based blue PHOLED as early in 2003. Now Karl Hahn, a senior VP at BASF, says that the company will be ready to launch a commercial blue phosphorescent emitter by the end of 2014 aimed towards OLED lighting panels.

During the same presentation, Karl Hahn said that BASF plans to open a new OLED display focused laboratory in Korea during 2014.

French site Lesnumeriques posted an article on Samsung's KN55S9C curved OLED TV, in which they include a macro-photo showing the TV's sub pixels up close:

As you can see, the blue subpixels are bigger than the red and green ones (about twice as large). This was designed this way because the blue OLED has the lowest lifetime - if it is bigger then you can lower the brightness and so conserve lifetime. We've seen many OLED displays with differently-sized subpixels - including PenTile ones and the rather unique display used in the Note 2.

Cynora is a German startup established in 2003 that developed copper-based OLED emitter systems. In October 2012 the company unveiled a mostly-solution-based flexible OLED prototype, developed in collaboration with InnovationLab. Last month Germany’s BMBF launched the cyCESH project which aims to develop soluble (printable) materials for low-cost high efficiency OLED lighting devices. Cynora is the leader of the consortium in this €6 million project, together with Novaled and the University of Regensburg.

Cynora's technology is interesting and the company's CEO Dr. Tobias Grab and the company's Business Development manager, Dr. Mathias Mydlak, were kind enough to provide the information for this article explaining the company's technology.

The US Department of Energy (DoE) announced the eligble topics for the FY 2014 SBIR and STTR funding. There are two topics involving OLED lighting efficiency. The first is the development of OLED materials and structures that will lead to the production and commercialization of a highly efficient, stable white OLED device. The DOE specifically mentions the development of highly efficient, blue emitter materials and hosts.

The second topic is the development of methods of manufacturing either OLED pixels or panels or devices. The DoE is also interested in system level integration solutions that would accelerate OLED devices into niche markets. If you want to apply, you will have to send the application by October 15. The DoE will formally announce the opportunities on August 12.

The US PTO published a new patent from Apple (filed in 2012) that describes how to use sensors to compensate for ambient lighting (see DisplayMate's related recent article) and lifetime brightness degradation in OLED displays. The patent describes that photo-diodes can be placed inside the OLED array or above and below it.

Putting photo-diodes inside the display will enable them to more accurately measure light levels. So if a part of the screen is dimmer than the rest of the screen (for example because only a part of the display is under direct light) - the photodiode will detect it and then the display brightness in that area can be increased. This is something that cannot be achieved with a single sensor. Those photodiodes can also be used to learn whether certain OLED pixels (or pixel groups) have lowered brightness due to aging. Then the display can compensate and drive these pixels higher.

A few days ago we reported about new research from Dankook University (DKU) that developed the world's most efficient blue OLED emitter. Today I talked with Professor Lee Jun Yeob, who's in charge of that research at DKU, and he explained his research further.

It turns out that in that particular research, they developed a new host material for blue OLEDs, and not a new emitter. The 30.1% efficiency they quote is external quantum efficiency. The blue emitter itself is a phosphorescent OLED - a common emitter known as FIrpic (Iridium based). Universal Display were not involved in this work.

The German government launched a new 34 million Euro (about $44 million) two years project called OLYMP ("Organic Light-emitting sYstems based on energy and cost-efficient Materials and Processes") that aims to improve OLED lighting efficiency and lifetime. 

The project partners are Osram (the project coordinator), Merck, BJB, LEDON, KG and Trilux. It follows a complete approach that covers all value-creation levels.