OLED lighting introduction and market status
OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diodes) are light emitting panels made from organic (carbon based) materials that emit light when electricity is applied. OLED displays are popular today in smartphones, laptops, wearables, TVs, and more - but these panels can also be useful for lighting purposes.
An OLED 'light bulb' is a thin film of material that emits light. OLED is the only technology that can create large "area" lighting panels (as opposed to point or line lighting enabled by LEDs and fluorescent bulbs). OLEDs can be used to make flexible and transparent panels, and can also be color-tunable. OLEDs emit beautiful soft diffused light - in fact OLEDs lighting is the closest light source to natural light (with the exception of the old incandescent lamps).
The OLED lighting market
OLED is an amazing technology for lighting - it creates beautiful, efficient and healthy light sources. OLED lighting has great promise but unfortunately the high price of production is a challenge that no one has managed to overcome and OLED lighting remains a small niche industry as of 2024.
In the early years, several large lighting makers (including GE, Philips, OSRAM, LG, Konica Minolta, Panasonic, NEC and others) had active OLED lighting programs, but slowly almost all of these companies dropped out of the market - for various reasons - but the main one being that the large investments in large scale production are not certified to lead to market adoption and the competition with LED lighting is extremely difficult.
But not all is lost. Konica Minolta is now mass producing OLED lighting panels, and OLEDWorks (which took over Philips' OLED lighting fab in Germany) is making excellent progress with automotive OLED lighting. China-based Yeolight is building $100 million OLED lighting fab, and Germany's Inuru is targeting niche markets with its printed OLEDs.
Further reading
- An introduction to OLEDs
- OLED Technology explained
- Transparent OLEDs
- Flexible OLEDs
- The OLED Toolbox, our comprehensive OLED industry information resource
Inuru's flexible OLED holo tags - hands on review
A few months ago Inuru started shipping its range of OLED-powered stickers, or "holo tags" as the company refers to them. These are battery-powered flexible stickers that can be used for laptops or any other use.
The company was kind enough to send us three stickers, from their latest Cyberpunk range. These stickers cost around 20 Euros, and there are many alternative designs. The idea is that the flexible stickers include a small OLED, a battery and a button that lights up the OLED for a few seconds. The whole device is said to be waterproof, but I did not test it.
Inuru says that the lifetime of the OLED is about 5,000 hours. As the battery is limited, though, they say that each sticker is limited at around 2,500 clicks. Some of them use a red OLED, and some a blue one.
Researchers combine blue TADF emitters and yellow MR-TADF emitters to create high efficiency and long-lasting white OLED devices
Researchers from Shenzhen University and Wuhan University have designed new white OLED devices that exhibit exceptional power efficiency (over 190 lm/W, 39% EQE) and extended operational lifetime (LT80 446 hours at 1,000 cd/m2).
The new device uses a blue TADF emitter emitter combined with a yellow MR-TADF emitter. The light is a warm white light. The researchers also used the same technique to create a standard white emission device, that still achieves a high EQE of 35.6%, thus further validating the strategy.
Yeolight confirms it is the OLED lighting supplier for Voyah's Zhiyin
Last month China-based Voyah announced a new international all-electric SUV called the Zhiyin, that includes several innovative technologies. The taillights of the car are OLED lighting based, with 33 individually controlled OLED units on both the upper and lower sections, creating unique light patterns. We assumed that Yeolight is the OLED panel supplier, and indeed now the company confirmed that.
In addition to the OLED taillights, the Zhiyin will also an AMOLED display - a "curved sliding screen" that can "slide to accommodate different user needs". While this is not confirmed, we assume that this is a similar display to the one Hongqi just revealed yesterday - a sliding rollable 14.2" AMOLED panel produced by Visionox.
Audi's 2025 Q5 and SQ5 cars to feature OLED lighting and two AMOLED displays
Audi unveiled its latest Q5 and SQ5 SUVs (2025 model). Both new cars adopt OLED lighting taillights and two AMOLED displays inside the car.
The OLED taillights utilize Audi's second-generation digital OLED solutions, and has six digital OLED lighting 'panels' made from 266 separate lighting segments. Audi says that the new OLED taillights can communicate with the vehicle’s immediate surroundings (Car-to-X) - for example it warns other road users of accidents and breakdowns in the road ahead. The OLED panels and technology are provided by OLEDWorks.
Voyah set to launch the all-electric Zhiyin SUV, with OLED taillights and a sliding OLED display
China-based Voyah announced that it will launch an international all-electric SUV called the Zhiyin next month. The Zhiyin was specifically developed for the global market, with two distinct front-end designs and several innovative technologies.
The Zhiyin will sport customizable OLED taillights, consisting of 33 individually controlled OLED units on both the upper and lower sections, creating unique light patterns. It is not clear whether this is optional, or whether it will come standard in all of the Zhiyin models. We assume that Yeolight is the OLED panel supplier, but we're not 100% sure.
Sentry announced it has ordered a substantial number of Konica Minolta's OLED panels for its Radiance platform
A couple of months ago fintech company Sentry launched the Radiance card illumination platform, which enables credit card (and other payment card) issuers to offer a unique experience by using an OLED lighting panel embedded in the card.
Today the company announced that it has placed the first substantial commercial order for the OLED units from Konica Minolta. The Radiance card platform works without a battery, and the OLED panel is powered by the NFC receiver upon a transaction (a technology that was demonstrated by KM back in 2020).
OLEDWorks confirms it is supplying the OLED lighting panels for Audi's 2024 Q8 SUV
In 2023, Audi unveiled the 2024 Q8 and SQ8 SUVs, which sports optional OLED taillights, similar to the ones used in the 2022 Audi A8. We assumed that the OLED panels were supplied OLEDWorks, and the company indeed formally confirmed that the 2024 A8 uses its Atala OLED technology.
The Q8 uses Audi's first-gen design, as it was in the 2022 A8. A total of six panels—each less than one millimeter thick—span the rear of the car. One panel occupies each of the left and right bodyside lamps, and four panels span the continuous inner tailgate lamp. Every panel contains six high-contrast segments that are individually addressable via software control.
Sentry Enterprises launches an illuminated credit card platform with a flexible OLED lighting panel produced by Konica Minolta
In 2014 Konica Minolta started constructing its groundbreaking R2R flexible OLED lighting fab. The project saw many delays and entered production later than planned, and KM started producing panels at low volume at around 2020. The company recently started to ramp up production, and today we hear of one of its first customers and partners, Sentry Enterprises.
Sentry, a fintech company, launched the Radiance card illumination platform, which enables credit card (and other payment card) issuers to offer a unique experience by using an OLED lighting panel embedded in the card. The OLED panel is produced by Konica Minolta. The card works without a battery, and the OLED panel is powered by the NFC receiver upon a transaction (a technology that was demonstrated by KM back in 2020).
The 2025 Audi SQ7 SUV to feature OLED taillights
Audi unveiled its 2025 Q7 and SQ7 SUVs, with the latter offering the company's 2nd-gen OLED taillights. It is not clear whether these will be standard or optional.
Audi did not detail much about these OLED taillights - but these are likely to be similar to the ones used in the new Q6 e-tron, which uses a total of 360 individual OLED panels built into 6 different lighting panels (each made from 60 OLED panels, or segments as Audi calls them).
Audi releases a video showing the Q6 e-Tron OLED taillights
In July 2023, Audi unveiled the upcoming 2024 Audi Q6 e-tron, with its second-gen OLED taillight technology. The new taillight lighting system use a total of 360 individual OLED panels built into 6 different lighting panels (each made from 60 OLED panels, or segments as Audi calls them), and is able to show warnings and signals to other drivers. Audi now released a nice video showing the new OLED taillight modules in action:
Audi will ship the cars with 8 pre-configured digital light signatures, and customers will be able to add their personal light signatures using the myAudi app. The OLEDs are likely produced by OLEDWorks, like all of Audi's recent OLED panels.
