OLEDWorks have successfully completed its Series A funding round from private investors. While we do not know the exact amount, this money will (according to the company) enable them to start producing "low-cost" OLED lighting panels.
OLEDWorks is building an OLED lighting manufacturing fab in Rochester, NY, and they say that they will offer low-cost OLEDs through the use of equipment and process innovation. Next week at LightFair 2013 they will present their first OLED prototypes, which they plan to start shipping in the second half of 2013.
OLEDWorks' first panels will be 4x4 inch (12x12 cm) in size - and they will be efficient (over 45 lm/W). The company will offer two options: OLED panels on glass and on metal. The panels be thin (under 3 mm) and will come in six color variants - red, blue, green, amber and three white color options (3000K, 3500K and 4000K).
OLEDWorks tells us that they'll actually be able to produce 6.8x6.8 inch panels (17.2x17.2 cm). If this is true than these will be the largest OLED panels on the market. Currently the largest panels are 15x15 cm in size.
OLEDWorks was established in July 2010 by former Kodak OLED business experts with the goal to become an OLED lighting panel manufacturer. The company signed a patent license agreement with Global OLED Technology (I supposed that in order to achieve 45 lm/W at least some of the emitters will be phosphorescent based, so we can expect a license with Universal Display soon as well) and bought used OLED encapsulation machines from Cambridge Nanotech.
