07.05.2008
Researchers at Osram are ushering in a new era in room lighting systems — with white organic light-emitting diodes (OLED) that boast a service life of more than 5,000 hours, while consuming little energy and achieving a high level of brightness. The new development marks the first time that engineers have succeeded in enhancing robustness and luminosity at the same time. It used to be the case that making improvements to one factor would negatively impact the other. The OLED prototype measures 100 square centimeters, and the first products in which it will be used are expected to be launched on the market in 2010. At the light+building trade fair, award-winning lighting designer Ingo Maurer presented the very first prototype of a design lighting unit equipped with the Osram OLED.
OLEDs consist of plastics that emit light when a low electrical current flows through them. Within the framework of the Opal program funded by the German Ministry of Research, Osram Opto Semiconductors has been working for several years on preparing these new light sources for mass production. Researchers from Siemens Corporate Technology, who are also participating in the project, are looking into new component concepts and materials, as well as alternative solutions for electrical contacts.
The luminescent plastics will launch a revolution in lighting technology. In the future, their thin light tiles will make it possible to create different lighting moods by means of illuminated partitions, empyreans, and colorful designs, for example. The lighting unit being presented at the trade fair consists of ten OLED elements, each measuring 130 x 30 millimeters.
The Osram researchers in Regensburg have achieved brilliancy of 1,000 candelas per square meter, which is ten times brighter than a white sheet of paper in daylight. The OLED tiles have an efficiency of 46 lumens per Watt — or three times that of a light bulb, in which most of the energy is converted into heat rather than light. The researchers want to increase efficiency even further over the next year, with plans calling for an OLED module made of individual tiles to achieve 500 lumens at less than ten Watts in March 2009.
Osram has also developed an OLED tile that currently has a transparency level of 55 percent, which the company plans to increase to 75 percent. This flat unit can emit light in both directions, making it a light source that can be very flexibly used in various room applications.
