Inhabitat











May 27, 2006

GROUNDBREAKING MATERIAL: OLED illuminated surfaces

by Evelyn Lee





Imagine a house without a single light fixture - but instead walls, ceilings, furnishings, and accessories all sources of light. Thanks to research at Princeton University and the University of Southern California (USC), almost any surface in a building can become a light source with OLEDs.

Researchers have made a critical advancement from what was once single-color displays to highly efficient and long-lasting natural light source called OLEDs (organic light-emitting diodes). The invention was the brain child of 13-years of research in the OLED program headed up by Mark Thompson at USC College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, and Stephan Forrest, vice president for research at the University of Michigan (formerly at Princeton).

Thompson states that the OLED process ?enables us to get 100 percent efficiency out of single, broad spectrum light source.? Completely transparent when not in use, the devices can be used in windows and a skylight, mimicking the feel of natural light once the sun goes down. Imagine the energy saving possibilities! Or, for gadget geeks, OLEDs could make for the flattest flat-panel TV imaginable. Watch out when OLEDs hit the mass market, it could transform lighting as we know it.

+ Via Transstudio

23 Responses to “GROUNDBREAKING MATERIAL: OLED illuminated surfaces”

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anbusivan Says:
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it is fantastic. but iam interested wheather is it available in indian market? if yes can get get more specification abt it?

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erik Says:
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All about the newest display generation OLED at http://www.oled-display.net or http://www.oled.at (German)

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Djermakoye Says:
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I find it very interesting,and would love to know more about this breaktrough invention.

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Interesting.
100% efficiency? Does that mean that the OLEDs, for instance, doesn?t leak any warmth?

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Hmmm, great stuff, seems to be coming out directly from a sci-fi novel..

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Chico Says:
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The it looks is that the surface it charged with a DC current? If touched could it be a ouchee!

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Don Park Says:
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exactly. the 100% efficiency claim is doubtful. if that were true i imagine all the lights in your house could be powered by the excess energy from the doors being opened and closed.

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chris Says:
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A LOT of universities and companies are working on OLEDs and several products such as MP3 players or mobile phones with OLED displays are on the market.
For general lighting purposes, cost will be a more important factor. Also, organic light-emitting materials are generally not stable in ambient (oxygen and humidity) and need to be encapsulated. A defect in the encapsulation layer will result in an ugly spot in the illuminated surface..

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Rich Says:
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Hi - yes, what is the operating lifetime of one of these displays? do they ‘burn out’ -

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This is so cool!

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sfxguy Says:
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Osram’s commercial oled’s last 55,000 hours.

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Achromus Says:
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?enables us to get 100 percent efficiency out of single, broad spectrum light source.? == We can build light sources and they will not be defective 100% of the time.

_Production_ effeciency, not energy efficiency.

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I can’t wait to come home one day and as soon as I open the door the Billie Jean starts playing. As I walk down the entrance hallway the floor tiles will light up.

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DOGDELO Says:
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OLEDs dont need charge to stay lit… they only use charge to set polarities that brings about the change… so once you set it… you can change the contents by inducing a certain charge at a certain place…. pretty nifty…. but has been in the works for quite a whiles

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SoftMetal Says:
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Actually it does mean energy efficiency. The heat generated by most other types of lighting uses most of the electricity needed to power it, OLEDs dont emit heat thus no energy is lost. This means literally 100% energy efficient lighting, very cool stuff.

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Dogcow Says:
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OLEDs slowly dim as they are used. Sure would suck to have to re-build your walls/ceilings to get good lighting in your house after a few years.

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ThatNewGuy Says:
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Whatever the actual illumination efficiency, the idea of putting it in Windows and Skylights would presumably cut the efficiency in half, as that amount of light is going to leave your home without a reflective backing.

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Seth Woodworth Says:
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This isn’t a new tech. It’s been around at about this state of devolopment for a few years now. It’s biggest use is computer displays and embeded computers and the like.

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Hi! Does anyone know of anyome who owns a house with these features? I work for home and garden network and would love to feature them on the show. Let me kknow! rwullschleger@highnoonentertainment.com

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OLDE lighting is still a few years from us. But lately there have been a lot of development, and several companies have stated that they have plans to commercialize this.

http://www.oled-info.com/oledForLighting

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shoutingsteve Says:
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Uhm, has anyone thought about radiation? This seems dangerously close to the efficiency of lasers, as well as appearing to only put out a small window of the light spectrum.

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[…] just successfully demonstrated a roll-to-roll printing (think newspaper style printing) process for OLEDs. It’s a state-of-the-art process for the production of Organic Light Emitting Diodes […]

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[…] just successfully demonstrated a roll-to-roll printing (think newspaper style printing) process for OLEDs. It’s a state-of-the-art process for the production of Organic Light Emitting Diodes […]

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