Pioneer - Page 4

Mitsubishi Chemical and Pioneer have jointly developed OLED elements produced using a wet coating process for the light-emitting layers. The two companies will establish a testing facility with an aim to commercialize this technology for OLED lighting mass production by 2014.

Mitsubishi's and Pioneer's OLED coating project began in January 2010, and in May 2011 the companies announced that they managed to fabricate a white OLED in which the emissive layer was formed in a coating process. That OLED featured 52 lm/W and a lifetime (LT50) of 20,000 hours (@1,000cd/m² luminance). The new panel produced now features 56 lm/W and a lifetime (LT70) of 57,000 hours (@1,000cd/m² luminance) which is quite an improvement.

Here's a nice video showing Verbatim's tunable OLED lighting panels (Velve), taken at the L+B 2012 exhibition:

These panels are Verbatim's 2nd-Generation panels, which are twice as bright than the original panels at 2,000 cd/m². The company offers two panel sizes: 131x44 mm and 65x72 mm. Verbatim can also create custom-made OLED panel sizes, and indeed in the video you can spot three different sizes. The Velve OLED lighting panels are made together by Mitsubishi and Pioneer, and are the world's only color-tunable OLED lighting panels.

Verbatim started shipping the first color tunable Velve panels back in April 2011, and now the company is presenting their 2nd-Generation panels and modules - which are twice as bright at 2,000 cd/m².

The company offers two panel sizes (although Verbatim can also create custom-made OLED panel sizes): 131x44 mm and 65x72 mm. The depth is just 5 mm. The profile of the modules is smaller, thinner and lighter because the printed circuit board is no longer rear-mounted and is housed in an electronic control unit connected via cabling.

Artist Takahiro Matsuo designed a color changing "OLED Chair" art project which uses Verbatim's Velve color-tunable OLED panels. This chair was on show at Tenjin IMS, Hakata, Japan in December 2011. The Velve panels do not generate any heat, so you can actually sit on this chair:

Verbatim announces a new OLED module that can be used to quickly and easily make OLED lighting schemes. Each module include a single rectangular (123x123 mm) Velve OLED panel. The module includes control electronics on the back. The whole assembly measures 146.4 x 133.3 x 8.7 mm and weights 192 grams. The modules are dimmable and consume 2.6W from a 24V DC power source. They feature both DMX512 and DALI interfaces.

Verbatim are also offering the Velve OLED lighting sample kits costing ¥90,000 in Japan ($1,050). The Velve OLED lighting panels are made together by Mitsubishi and Pioneer, and are the world's first color-tunable OLED lighting panels. The panels 31 lm/W efficiency and 8,000 hours of lifetime. The typical CRI is 80.

The OLED Association decided to award this year's OLED Leader Award to Ted Tohma. Ted was responsible to create Pioneer's OLED business unit back in 1997 and also of producing and marketing the world's first commercial OLED (PMOLED) displays. Ted also prophesied the progression from PMOLED to AMOLED and transitioned Pioneer towards Active Matrix displays.

Ted now consults several organization in the OLED industry. Ted Tohma started it all says Barry Young, Managing Director of the OLED Association.

Universal Display entered into an OLED technology license agreement with Pioneer Corporation. Pioneer will use company's UniversalPHOLED and other OLED technologies and will also purchase PHOLED materials - to be used for OLED lighting products. Pioneer will pay running royalties. The term of the agreement continues until Pioneer sells a specified amount of licensed products.

Pioneer has been using UDC's PHOLED materials in their PMOLED displays since 2003. The company has an OLED lighting joint-venture with Mitsubishi Chemicals - which will market Pioneer's panels under the Verbatim brand. Verbatim announced the color-tunable VELVE OLED lighting panels in February 2011, we're not sure if these are actually shipping yet as promised back in April.

WAC lighting is showing a new Hybrid-OLED luminaire - which is the first lamp to sport color-tunable OLEDs. This lamp uses Verbatim's Velve panels. The Hybrid-OLED includes six OLED panels delivering 300-plus lumens at 12 watts. Beside the OLEDs, the lamp include 8 low power LEDs (that provide 550 lumens at 12 watts). Currently we only have this closeup photo:

This is WAC Lighting's second OLED lamp - the first one being a chandelier that uses OSRAM's ORBEOS OLED Panels.

Mitsubishi Chemical and Pioneer announced that they managed to fabricate a white OLED in which the emissive layer was formed in a coating process (not sure if they mean spin-coating or printing). The OLED is efficient (52 lm/W) and the lifetime (LT50) is 20,000 hours (at 1,000cd/m² luminance). The upper layers in this OLED are made using vapor-deposition method. The companies plan to commercialize printed OLEDs at around 2014.

Mitsubishi's Velve panels (which will start shipping soon) use a coating process only for the foundation layer and not the emissive layer. In September 2009 we interviewed Verbatim's OLED team (which will market Mitsubishi's OLED panels).

We just got word from Verbatim that their Velve OLED lighting sample kits will start shipping in May. The price in Japan will be ¥90,000 ($1,050), we do not know the European or US price yet (it seems that Mitsubishi will market these in Japan and Verbatim will market in Europe). Full scale production will begin in July, and then prices will probably drop.

The sample kits include one color-tunable and dimmable OLED module, USB cable, software and a power adapter. Verbatim's software will allow you to program a color sequence (the default one will be red, green, blue, cyan, magenta, yellow). The panel itself is 145x207mm in size, and the actual emitting area is 123x123mm. The lifetime is 8,000 hours at 1000 cd/m². You can read the data sheet here.