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Organic Light-Emitting Diode

USC

The following was reported at http://www.mobilemag.com/content/100/102/C7416/ April 14, 2006

Scientist’s at USC have developed a new process for making OLED lighting that gives off a warm natural light that can light up an entire room.

Unlike incandescent light bulbs which are only 5% Efficient, they believe this new material could be 100% efficient, giving off no heat and run for years.

The key is organic light that comes spilling forth from a new diode, appropriately named an OLED (organic light-emitting diode).

It doesn't get hot, as do today's incandescent bulbs, so it is more energy efficient.

It can also be produced in super-thin sizes, making true ceiling lighting possible.

Carbon-based polymers, already the stuff of mobile phone displays, are the key. Scientists have stacked up enough of them while still keeping the resulting product razor thin. The plastics are covered with microscopic coatings of blue, green, and red dyes. Shoot an electric current through the thing, and you have white light.

The only remaining obstacle to all of these outlandish-sounding lights, scientists say, is the sensitivity to moisture that such diodes still exhibit. The researchers are confident that they can solve that problem eventually.

In the News

• GE Demonstrates World's First Roll-to-Roll Manufactured Organic Light Emitting Diodes (OLEDs) (http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20080311005806&newsLang=en) - The efforts to increase the efficiency and performance of OLED lighting have coincided with the development of a low-cost, roll-to-roll process for manufacturing these devices. (Business Wire; March 11, 2008)

• Organic Light Emitting Device Could Put the Light Bulb to Bed (http://www.treehugger.com/files/2006/04/organic_light_e_1.php) - Imagine if the window in your living room let in light during the day, turned into an efficient light source in the evening, and then became a movie screen. Sound impossible? Maybe not, thanks to a technology called Organic Light Emitting Devices and researchers at USC and UMich. Until now, OLEDs have been limited, but new work has enabled them to efficiently emit broad-spectrum light suitable for illuminating interior spaces. That means flexible, OLED-illuminated surfaces could be morphed into— and do double-duty on—all sorts of surfaces, from windows, to flat-screens, to curtains. (TreeHugger; Apr. 19, 2006)

• http://www.usc.edu/uscnews/stories/12305.html
• http://www.mobilemag.com/content/100/102/C7416/
• http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/04/13/oled__white_light_invention/

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

• New materials for high efficiency organic solid state lighting (http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-03/dnnl-nmf032406.php) - Direct conversion of electricity to light in "solid state" thin films of organic molecules, occurring in organic light emitting devices (OLED) -- which can be far more efficient than conventional "incandescent" light bulbs -- can be improved further with new charge-transporting organic phosphine oxide molecules. (EurekAlert; Mar. 30, 2006)

See also

• OLED-Display.net (http://www.oled-display.net) - OLED Display News, Forum, blog, Oled products and many more
• OLED.at (http://www.oled.at) - German OLED Information Website
• OLED-Info (http://www.oled-info.com) - OLED community site with news, articles, forums and more
• Lighting (http://www.freeenergynews.com/Directory/Lighting) - index at FreeEnergyNews.com
• Directory:Lighting

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