The OLED Lighting Commercialization Alliance (OLCA) was formed a few days ago in Taiwan, with an aim to make Taiwan an important OLED lighting player. The alliance will promote OLED technologies and will include members from materials suppliers to product makers.
The OLCA seems to be led by Taiwan's ITRI. Other members include Merck, RiT Display, WiseChip, Corning, Tongtai Machine & Tool and the TLFEA (Taiwan Lighting Fixture Export Association). ITRI says that more than 60 companies have shown interest in collaborating with OLCA members.
The only OLED lighting developer in Taiwan that I'm aware of is AU Optronics' Lextar subsidiary. And I'm not sure if they're still into OLED lighting - the last update was in April 2012, when they said they will show prototype OLED lighting panels (but I don't think these were actually ever demonstrated). AUO did show some sample panels back in 2010.
Prototype OLED panels (AUO, 2010)
Comments
Rob,
I agree that OLED lighting, while being very late, seems to be advancing all the time, and I'm quite optimistic. I think mass production will actually arrive in the next year or two from at least one player (KM, LG Chem and Philips are my main contenders).
Regarding efficiency - yes, I still stand behind that statement. OLEDs will be better than CFLs but probably not as efficient as LEDs. However, with the OLED, the panel "is the lamp" - the light is nice to look at and the panel will look good. This means you will not need to shade it or point it on the wall. This means that final "lamp efficiency" may be better in OLEDs.
Time will tell!
When reading this article, I decided to click on the "hot link" to "OLED Lighting" imbedded in the article...and I have an observation and a question: The observation is not earth shattering, but it does remind us all as to how long we have been waiting for OLED lighting to really hit the market. I'm not sure when this original article (or collection of articles) was published, but when you scroll all the way down, you will see the OLED lighting "players" (Osram, Phillips etc.) and they all had planned to have mass production under way either as early as 2010 in the case of Phillips all the way through the latest being Osram in 2013...Obviously here we are half way through 2014 and we don't have anyone in mass production, but just because predictions were too early, that doesn't mean they were wrong. Given all of the announcements we have read this year, it is clear that all of the players on the chart are still playing, and even more (like this Taiwanese consortium) want to get in.
My question has to do with the statement (probably made back in 2009 or 2010) that said that OLED lighting efficiency is "somewhere between CFLs and LEDs"...while we all know that OLEDs are significantly more efficient than CFLs (and no mercury), I presume since phosphorescent OLEDs can convert 100% of energy into light, that OLED lighting we will see going forward is indeed significantly more efficient than LEDs. Ron?