A couple of months ago Toshiba developed a unique transparent OLED lighting device structure that emits most of the light (over 95%) in only one direction. Now at SID 2013 the company unveiled more information about the new structure, calling these panels "Transmissive Single-sided OLEDs".
Regular transparent OLEDs use transparent electrodes (usually made from ITO) for both sides of the panel. When the OLED is turned on, it emits light in both directions. Sometimes this poses problems - if you want to embed such panels in windows, for example, you don't want light pollution on the outside which just wastes electricity. In addition, when such OLED panels are turned on they are no longer transparent.
To solve these issues, Toshiba used a non-transparent metal electrode on one side of the panel. To still make the panel transparent, they arranged the metal electrodes in a thin (140?m-wide) stripe pattern. Toshiba is showing prototype panels that measure 180x90mm and 164x72 mm. These panels are 1.4 mm thick and feature a color temperature of 3300K and a brightness of 450-800 cd/m2. The transmission rate is 68%, and the efficiency is said to be 25.7 lm/W.
One possible application for such panels are those spooky light-emitting glasses you see above. Apparently you can still see while using those panels which act as flash lights, of sorts. Toshiba says that such devices may be useful for dental treatments, aquariums and showcases.
