Research project OLED100.eu has received €12.5m of funding from the European Community’s Seventh Framework Programme to develop efficient Organic Light-Emitting Diode (OLED) applications for the general lighting industry in Europe.
The OLED100.eu programme follows on from the OLLA (Organic LEDs for Lighting Applications) programme, which started in 2004 and concluded earlier this year. OLLA created the basis for organic lighting by developing white OLEDs with efficacies of 50.7 lm/W at an initial brightness of 1,000cd/m2 and with lifetimes well above 10,000 hours.
With OLED100.eu, Europe is continuing to invest in the development of organic lighting technologies and moving to specifications required for general lighting applications. The consortium will focus on five main goals: high power efficacy (100 lm/W); long lifetime (100,000 hours); large area (100x100 cm2); low-cost (100 Euro/m2) and measurement standardisation / application research.
OLEDs are a new class of solid-state light sources and are emerging as a compelling candidate to replace conventional lighting systems for large area illumination. Organic LEDs generate a diffuse, non-glaring illumination with high colour rendering. They are flat, thin, and have the potential to serve as efficient large light sources. OLEDs are instant-on, can be dimmed and can be produced on substrates of basically any shape. This high level of flexibility in terms of design and application make them highly appealing for designers, manufacturers and consumers. Furthermore, as a highly efficient light source, OLEDs have the potential to achieve substantial energy savings.
