Next steps in OLED lighting

Whereas the first OLED lighting product was already introduced in 2008 by Ingo Maurer and Osram the market penetration of OLED lighting is still low. This is mainly caused by the huge progress in inorganic LED technology. LED-based lighting products have been available for some years and are the basis for a rapidly growing SSL industry. Therefore it is necessary to identify the unique selling points for OLED. These are as follows:• Thin: The full system can beth inner than 1mm.• Transparent: Transparent devices emitting the light in both directions can be reached using transparent materials for both electrodes. In off-state there is a transmittance higher than 50%.• Flexible: Using flexible substrates and encapsulation material like barrier coated polymer web, thin metal foil or even ultrathin flexible glass enables devices which can be applied in curved systems.• Freeform and segmented: Individual area freeform can be defined. Segmentation and individual driving is possible in contrast to edge coupled LED. Beside the introduction of OLED luminaires for general lighting applications a huge breakthrough was reached in 2016 when first OLED modules have been introduced in serial production for automotive rear lights by AUDI and BMW. Light is a key differentiator in automotive lighting: OLED sentered the market for style reasons