ams OSRAM - Page 2

In October 2013, the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) launched a new flexible OLED lighting project called R2D2 with an aim to investigate new production technologies, including roll-to-roll techniques.

R2D2's coordinator Fraunhofer FEP, now reports that the project has been successfully completed. OLED production processes and market sectors were thoroughly analyzed, the potential for improvement was identified and realized. The project partners developed a series of OLED lighting applications combining special design features with efficient fabrication techniques.

OSRAM is mostly focused on OLED for the automotive market, and the company recently announced a five-year strategic plan that includes a €2 billion investment in current and future lighting applications - which includes OLEDs for the automotive market. The company released this new videos showing a new flexible OLED based concept:

OSRAM says that their automotive OLED lighting panels will enter mass production in early 2016. OSRAM is the OLED supplier of BMW's M4 GTS taillights. The M4 GTS will enter limited-edition (700 units) production and may be considered the first commercial car with OLED lighting.

Universal Display announced that it signed a collaboration and evaluation agreement with OSRAM. OSRAM will begin to sample UDC's PHOLED OLED materials for OLED lighting applications.

OSRAM is mostly focused on OLED for the automotive market, and the company recently announced a five-year strategic plan that includes a €2 billion investment in current and future lighting applications - which includes OLEDs for the automotive market. The company's CEO considers OLED important for some niches, but too expensive for general lighting.

A few months ago, OSRAM announced a new five-year strategic plan that includes a €2 billion investment in current and future lighting applications - which includes OLEDs for the automotive market. Last week the company's CEO, Olaf Berlien, said that while OLED is an important technology for some niches (like automotive lighting), it is "definitely" too expensive for general lighting.

Olaf says that Osram will indeed invest in OLED lighting technology, but not for general lighting. He does not expect OLEDs to be ready for the general lighting market anytime soon.

OSRAM Announced a new five-year strategic plan that includes a €2 billion investment in current and future lighting applications - including lasers, LEDs and OLEDs for automobiles.

OSRAM says that their automotive OLED lighting panels will enter mass production in early 2016. OSRAM is the OLED supplier of BMW's M4 GTS taillights. The M4 GTS will enter limited-edition (700 units) production and may be considered the first commercial car with OLED lighting.

A few days ago we posted that BMW has announced now that they are starting to produce the M4 GTS at very limited quantities with deliveries are planned to begin in March 2016. The M4 GTS uses OLED taillights - and can be considered the world's first commercial car with OLED lighting (although at 700 units, it's debatable if this is a real commercial car launch).

In my post I said that I do not know the supplier of those OLED panels, and today OSRAM contacted me and said that these are OSRAM's panels. It turns out that OSRAM announced that they are the supplier of those panels (or the ones in the M4 GTS concept) back in February.

The EU launched a new OLED lighting project called the LEO project (Low-cost / energy Efficient OLEDs) that aims to develop efficient and cost-effective OLED applications for the lighting industry.

LEO is a three-year project was launched as part of the EU's Horizon 2020 framework with a grant of €4 million. The project partners are Osram, France's CEA and Italy's CNR, ArcelorMittal, Fundacion Gaiker (as the sustainability experts) and Cynora that will contribute innovative emitter and host materials for OLEDs.

In January 2015 BMW demonstrated a new concept car, the M4 Concept Iconic Lights that features a new OLED-based tail light (with OLEDs made by OSRAM). The rearlights use yellow and red OLED lighting panels arranged in a 3D structure.

Today BMW released the nice video you see above, showing the Iconc Lights car concept in action. It's great to see the BMW designers so excited about OLED and the possibilities this new technology brings.

Last month BMW demonstrated a new concept car, the M4 Concept Iconic Lights that featured two new lighting technologies - the laserlight headlights and the OLED based tail lights and rear direction indicators. Today OSRAM announced that BMW uses the company OLEDs (the laserlight is also made by OSRAM).

When showing the car, BMW said that they aim to launch a production model with OLEDs in the "near future". In April 2014 BMW said that the future lighting technology for their automobiles will be OLED, and that BMW expects to start selling cars with OLED lighting within 3 years.

Audi had a nice OLED-based lighting installation at their booth at CES. They used 124 OLED panels (about 7x7 cm each) to form the Audi logo. Those OLEDs are red in color, probably as this is the standard backlight color for EU and US cars. The installation is a moving 3D one, and the Audi rings are formed from all sides, which makes it look a bit weird in the photo.

Audi has been mostly collaborating with Philips on OLED lighting, which leads me to believe that the red OLEDs used in this installation are made by Philips, but they also showed some designs in the past using OSRAM-made OLEDs.