OLED Lighting Trends, Advantages and Opportunities - Status and Prospects

Advantages of OLED
Naturally Diffused Light Source Encapsulated in Ultra-thin and Lightweight Materials
The biggest difference between the advantages of OLED lighting and other lighting technologies is that OLEDs are a naturally diffused source of light. oLED lighting is essentially a surface emitter, so as long as the current is injected and diffused uniformly through the electrodes, you get a very homogeneous light over the entire surface.

OLED lighting is very thin and light, the active layer applied is usually less than a micron, so the entire thickness of the panel is essentially dependent on the thickness of the substrate as well as any films we can add. In the picture below, you can see a very thin panel that is very nice and diffuses the light evenly with a natural Lambertian distribution.

High Brightness Multi-Stacking Design
We have found that OLEDs can be easily stacked, meaning that we can "stack" multiple elements or multiple OLEDs so that they are vertically stacked together to increase the voltage, but also increase the amount of light emitted in proportion to the number of stacks. As a result, we can produce higher brightness on the same panel.

We can do this, for example, in the taillights used in cars. If we want 1000 or 2000 nits, we use 1 or 2 stacks. If we want 20,000 nits or more, we can use 6 or more stacks combined in the same panel to produce very high brightness.

In addition, this can be done with any colour. We make very high brightness white OLEDs with multiple layers of blue and yellow emitting stacks. yellow is made from a combination of red and green emitters. The colour temperature can also be adjusted by changing the ratio of yellow to blue, and the range of applications is unlimited - we can make any colour or combination of colours. It's a highly flexible technology with endless possibilities.

OLEDs are affordable, with the advantages of sustainability and multi-zone design
OLED costs are often overlooked and OLED technology can offer reduced integrated system costs. If you simply look at the upfront cost per lumen or the upfront panel cost, many would argue that OLEDs are too expensive. However, OLEDs have fewer components than a typical LED system or other optical system.

OLEDs are also sustainable. The panels are primarily glass and there are no bulky heat sinks and things you'll need to dispose of in the future, so they're conducive to sustainability as well as bringing other environmental benefits.

Another attractive aspect of OLEDs is the ability to have a multi-zone design. It's almost like a low-resolution display with large emitting zones that can be individually controlled, turned on and off. Each zone is very uniform and has a uniformity of 90 per cent or better across the zones, and the contrast is very high - it goes black when you turn it off. This is what makes OLEDs so great for displays, because you can create 3D effects and cool digital effects.

OLED Technology Trends
OLED technology has been around for a while - display technology has been around for more than 20 years - so we can see some trends in it. As far as smartphones are concerned, OLED displays are very much in use, close to 50 per cent.

Generally, other larger displays, such as TVs and monitors, are updated at a slower rate, but OLED display technology is growing significantly in those areas, which include microdisplays and automotive interior displays. This is because the trend in those display areas is towards flexibility, high resolution, high brightness, high contrast and dynamic range.

In general lighting and automotive lighting applications, we also see the same trend of flexibility, high brightness, multi-zone and various combinations of different trends. In automotive applications, OLEDs combine flexibility, multi-sectoring and high brightness to allow lamp designs to fit the curved lines of the vehicle.