Philips - Page 9

Back in November 2011 Philips signed an agreement with TPV to create a TV joint-venture. Philips transferred all of its existing display business into the newly formed entity (Philips TPV). The company is producing LCD TVs (CCFL and LED backlit).

Today we hear some reports that the company is starting to discuss OLED TVs - with plans to offer models at around 2013. The company will likely unveil its new range of TVs at IFA 2012 - although it isn't expected to show any OLED displays.

The EU announced a new OLED lighting project called IM3OLED (Integrated Multidisciplinary & Multiscale Modeling for OLEDs) that aims to develop a software tool for multiscale OLED lighting modeling. The tool will enable a more systematic R&D process - which will accelerate efficient OLED design development.

The IM3OLED software will predictively model OLEDs in 3D and at all length scales from molecular to large-area devices. It will include molecular calculations, electrical and optical simulation, 1D-3D light extraction and scaling / integration effects. It will also incorporate a dynamic feedback loop, enabling developers to accurately predict how changes in one area of OLED development affect other areas. This will allow multiple OLED properties to be optimized simultaneously.

Digitimes Research posted about Philips lighting unit, and they said that the company's goal is to reach an efficiency of 120 lm/W for their OLED lighting panels by 2019. We talked to Philips and indeed they confirm this number. Philips is gearing up to start production in their new Aachen production plant which will increase production capacity tenfold and will also lower prices considerably.

This is quite an increase from the panels Philips make today. The regular Lumiblades offer around 12 lm/W, while the Lumiblade Plus (a phosphorescent panel, developed by Konica Minolta and produced by Philips) offers 45 lm/W. We reviewed Philips' new Lumiblades recently, here's the short hands on video:

Remember Daimler's Smart Forvision concept EV? That car has a transparent solar-panels on the roof, see-through dashboard and transparent OLEDs for internal lighting - on the roof of the car. We knew that Daimler was collaborating with BASF on this concept, and today BASF released a press release saying that indeed they developed those panels together with Philips.

The OLEDs are transparent when switched off, allowing for a clear view outside the vehicle, yet providing light only within the vehicle when switched on. The transparent OLED sandwich structure can be combined with equally transparent solar cells, as was demonstrated in the Smart Forvision. This development was achieved as part of a longstanding cooperation (since 2006) between BASF and Philips in the research and development of OLED modules.

Philips released their first OLED panels (or Lumiblades, as they call them) back in April 2009, and in May they sent us a few panels for a review. Since then Philips released new panels, and last week they sent us a new "experience kit" with two OLEDs: a white dot and a white tall rectangle.

We just got word from Philips that they will offer a special "Black Friday Box" edition of its Lumiblade Experience Kit. The box will include a single Lumiblade Rectangle Tall White panel and dedicated electronics. The cost will be €120 - a €225 discount over the normal price of a €345. This offer will soon be online in their web shop.

We will soon post a review of this particualr panel. In the meantime you can read our 2009 review of Philips' smaller Lumiblades.

Update: we have posted our review of the new Lumiblade panels...

Philips were the first company to release sample OLED panels, back in April 2009. In May 2009 they sent us a few Lumiblade panels for a review. Now I'm happy to report that they will send us new Lumiblades for a 2nd review shortly. These will be larger panels and it'll be interesting to see how they compare with panels from Lumiotec, Osram and Blackbody.

Philips also released a new video showing their OLEDs (see above). You can see the Edge and O’Leaf OLED lamps, the Mimosa Installation and the Living Shapes OLED wall.

Philips released a new issue of their Lumiblade magazine. This issue contains short articles by OLED lamp designers, some technical information and a lot of nice OLED lighting panel and lamp photos.

Update: it turns out that the report was not entirely accurate. Philips thinks that the prices will drop to â‚¬10-€20 in two years (by the end of 2013, not the end of 2012).

Philips say that the new €40 million Aachen OLED lighting production line will expand their capacity 10 times - and will enable them to drop the prices significantly. In fact, while prices today are in the range of €70 to €800, by the end of 2012 the cheapest panels will cost €10-€20.

According to Philips, if they can get the price down to €10-€20, this will become a mass market - they want customers to get OLED panels in their local hardware shops. I think that even with 10 times the current capacity, it won't be enough to actually consider this a mass market lighting device, but still it's great to hear that Philips have aggressive targets.

Konica Minolta announced a new next-generation lighting brand called Symfos. The first Symfos product is the OLED-010K OLED lighting panel sample kit - which is now shipping. The kit includes four OLED panels, and external driver box and an AC adapter.

The OLED itself uses all phosphorescent emitters (KM is using Universal Display's PHOLED technology) and offers 45 lm/W. This is the same panel that Philips is offering (as the Lumiblade Plus). In fact Philips is producing this panel for Konica Minolta, as was announced in July 2011. We do not know the price of the OLED-010K kit, but Philips is selling each Lumiblade Plus panel for €120.