OSRAM announced it has developed a new white OLED panel that achieve record efficiency - 87 lm/W. The tested panel had a brightness of 1,000 cd/m2 and a color temperature of about 4,000K. At 5,000 cd/m2 brightness the panel offers almost 75 lm/W.
OSRAM used a pure thin-film approach. The current was distributed evenly over the active surface using a special injection electrode on the light-generating surface and offers homogeneous light density from every angle.
OSRAM says that this 'laboratory' panel is actually "highly proximate to a product" - so we should expect production of this panel soon. In fact the company says that the organic functional material employed was already tested in pilot manufacturing and enables product-relevant lifetimes.
OSRAM say that their goal is to achieve 100 lm/W. This research is conducted as part of the TOPAS 2012 project.
Just to compare, OSRAM's currently-available Orbeos panels offer 25 lm/W. Philips' new Lumiblade-Plus panels offer 45 lm/W (those panels were actually developed by Konica Minolta, and are already shipping).
