Super-Efficient White OLED Lights

GE Unveils Super-Efficient White OLED Lights

High-efficiency organic light-emitting diode (OLED) lighting is closer than ever to commercialization, and recently GE scientists announced that they have devised a new way to make high-efficiency, low-cost OLED materials. While many companies in the OLED display industry use vacuum-based batch production processes, GE will use a high-speed, roll-to-roll process that is significantly more efficient. This kind of roll-to-roll processing is already used in the printing industry, and it means, according to John Strainic, global product general manager for GE Lighting, that “we’re starting to see the OLED light at the end of the tunnel.”

The ultra-efficient OLEDs aren’t ready for mass consumption quite yet — GE’s first flexible OLED lighting product will be released in 2011. No word yet on pricing.

Sony Unveils Flexible OLED Thinner Than a Strand of Human Hair

by Yuka Yoneda

Flexible gadgets are undeniably sexy – but Japanese electronics giant Sony wasn’t content stopping there. For their newest display, they decided to also throw in ultra-thinness (just 80μm or a bit thinner than a human hair) and the energy-saving power of OLEDs into the mix. The new prototype is so bendy that it can be wrapped around a pencil. From electronic newspapers to LED garments, just think about the applications such a display could be used for!

An older iteration of a flexible display that Sony was working on.

The new prototype is a huge step up from their last iteration, which Gizmodo reported to be only slightly bendy. According to PCWorld, the new screen contains innovative organic thin-film transistors that are used to make the driver circuitry to run the display. These transistors are capable of being produced directly on a flexible substrate, eliminating the need for rigid driver chips that would prevent the screen from being bent.
The new OLED display measures 4.1-inches wide with a contrast ratio of under 1,000:1 and a resolution of 432 x 240. And this is crazy – Sony says that this new OLED panel can continue streaming video while rolled up or stretched!

Flexible OLEDs Could Lead to Sony Computer “Bracelets” by 2020

Flexible OLEDs Could Lead to Sony Computer “Bracelets” by 2020

by Bridgette Meinhold

At the rate handheld gadgets are shrinking and condensing into a single über-device, it isn’t a stretch to picture a future where we’re strapping touchscreen mini-PCs onto our wrists like bracelets. As technology advances and flexible organic light-emitting diode (OLED) screens become more sophisticated and cost-efficient, wearable devices like Sony’s conceptual Nextep Computer Bracelet could become as ubiquitous as iPods in as little as 10 years. They might even be solar-powered.

ALL IN THE WRIST

Designed by Hiromi Kiriki, the OLED-constructed Nextep is a huge step up from ye olde calculator wristwatch. It features a holographically projected screen, pull-out keyboard panels, and one-touch access to your social networks. For tasks that demand more than a few cursory taps—a marathon IM session, perhaps?—the Nextep can be laid flat in the manner of a digital tablet.

OLEDS measure only 100 to 500 nanometers thick—about 200 times thinner than the width of a human hair.

OLEDs are made up of thin films of organic compounds that generate light when zapped with electricity. Besides consuming less power than light-emitting diodes (LEDs) or liquid crystal displays (LCDs), OLEDs also offer brighter, sharper resolutions, all while measuring 100 to 500 nanometers thick (that’s roughly 200 times thinner than the width of a human hair!)
This may sound like a pipe dream, but Sony is already working on an entire line of OLED computer screens and televisions, which it will begin releasing this year. That’s one small step for science fiction, one giant leap for real-world computing to come.

Move Over OLEDs: Scientists Create Cheap, Fully Recyclable Lighting Material

by Brian Merchant, Brooklyn, New York

Photo via Gizmag
Swedish and American researchers have just developed a fully recyclable lighting component with what Science Daily is terms a "new super material": graphene. Graphene is both inexpensive to produce and is 100% recyclable, and could be used to create glowing wallpaper made out of plastic--much like OLEDs could. But graphene appears to improve on OLEDs in some very big ways . . .

As you know, we've been big fans of the very efficient, long-lasting Light Emitting Diodes and Organic LED technology. But as Science Daily notes, there are still problems:

Today's OLEDs have two drawbacks -- they are relatively expensive to produce, and the transparent electrode consists of the metal alloy indium tin oxide. The latter presents a problem because indium is both rare and expensive and moreover is complicated to recycle.

A graphene lattice
Researchers believe they've found a solution by creating an organic light-emitting electrochemical cell (LEC) with the transparent electrode made of the "carbon material graphene." Graphene is used instead of conventional metal electrodes--and since everything in an LEC, including the graphene, can be created from liquid solutions, they will be able to be produced through a printing process. This makes them much more efficient--and much less expensive--to create en masse than OLEDs. Researchers involved in the project say that graphene paves the way for cheap production of plastic-based lighting, perhaps for the first time.
So what does this graphene consist of? SD has the skinny:

Graphene consists of a single layer of carbon atoms and has many attractive properties as an electronic material. It has high conductivity, is virtually transparent, and can moreover be produced as a solution in the form of graphene oxide.

Of course, we'll have to wait until more tests are done to get a fuller idea of its lifecycle and range of applications, but this seems like pretty intriguing news indeed