ams OSRAM

Company Type:  

Germany-based ams-OSRAM is a merger between OSRAM and ams, and is a supplier and manufacturer of optoelectronic semiconductors. 

OSRAM Opto Electronics (now merged into ams-OSRAM) released the world's first OLED lamp back in 2008, but this was more of a prototype than a commercial product. In November 2009 OSRAM started to ship its first OLED lighting panel, the ORBEOS, and here's our hands-on review of those panels

 

In 2014 or so OSRAM shifted its OLED lighting focus to the automotive market. OSRAM was the first company to supply OLED lighting panels for serially produced cars as it supplies the OLEDs for BMW's M4 GTS taillights and also the OLED lighting in Audi's TT RS Coupe 2016.

In 2018 OSRAM decided to pull out of the OLED lighting market. The company will continue to provide product support for both automakers until 2020, and will continue to monitor the market.

OSRAM used to offer PMOLED display panels (under the Pictiva brand), but this is now discontinued. ams-OSRAM is highly active with microLED display technologies, but following Apple's decision to cancel its wearable microLED project in 2024, the status of ams-OSRAM's microLED project is unclear.

Company Address

Leibnizstr. 4
93055 Regensburg
Germany

Apple cancels its microLED wearable display project

Apple entered into the microLED display industry in 2014, following the company's LuxVue acquisition. Since then the company has been very active with microLED development, with a first goal of replacing its wearable OLED displays with its own microLED displays. 

Apple Watch

Apple started developing microLED displays for wearable devices years ago, first aiming to launch the first product in 2023. The project was delayed several times, as the cost of production for microLED displays was too high for Apple, to the point where it was suggested Apple's goal is to launch the first microLED watch in 2027. One of Apple's key microLED partners, ams-Osram is is building a $850 Million 8-inch microLED epiwafer factory in Malaysia, and yesterday ams-Osram announced that its "cornerstone project" (it did not name Apple specifically) got unexpectedly cancelled. 

Read the full story Posted: Mar 01,2024

All in One sensing for OLED 2.0 and leadership role of ISORG

The following is a sponsored post by ISORG

ISORG is a French company based in Grenoble and Limoges in France, and the world centre of excellence for OPD technology (Organic Photo Diode). With more than 85 patents, ISORG is a technology rich company focused on three main market opportunities: (i) Smartphone fingerprint sensing, (ii) Security applications such as identification and border-crossing markets and (iii) SWIR and NIR CMOS imaging markets for automotive, AR-VR and smartphone applications. It has Gen 2 and Gen 3.5 factory capacity in France and a set of partnerships with leading companies in sensing and authentication. More can be found on ISORG here. In May 2022, CEO Dieter May left the helm of OSRAM Opto Semiconductors to join ISORG.

Image
Dietmar May, ISORG CEO

 

Display industry consultant Ian Hendy has interviewed ISORG's CEO Dieter May.

Read the full story Posted: Dec 02,2022

OLED lighting 2019: out with the old, in with the new

OLED is an amazing technology for lighting - it creates beautiful, efficient and healthy light sources. OLED lighting has great promise but unfortunately the high price of production is a challenge that no one has managed to overcome and OLED lighting remains a small niche industry as of 2019.

In the early years, several large lighting makers (including GE, Philips, OSRAM, Panasonic, NEC and others) had active OLED lighting programs, but slowly almost all of these companies dropped out of the market - for various reasons - but the main one being that the large investments in large scale production are not certified to lead to market adoption and the competition with LED lighting is extremely difficult.

Read the full story Posted: Aug 11,2019 - 1 comment

Audi's TT 20th anniversary to feature OLED rear lighting

Audi announced a special limited (999 total) 20th anniversary edition of its TT sports coupe - which will sport OLED taillights - similar to the ones Audi adopted in its 2016 Audi TT RS.

Audi TT 20th anniversary photo

The OLED used in the 2016 TT RS were produced by OSRAM. In April 2018 OSRAM announced it is pulling out of the OLED lighting market, but it will continue to support its customers until 2020, so it's likely that these new OLED modules will also be provided by OSRAM.

Read the full story Posted: Jul 23,2018

Is OSRAM pulling out of the OLED lighting market?

One of our readers reported that during the Light + Building trade show earlier this month, an OSRAM official said that OSRAM is pulling out of the OLED lighting market, and the company will stop all OLED R&D immediately.

This is very unfortunate news. OSRAM is the supplier of OLED Lighting panels to Audi and BMW, and according to the OSRAM official the company will continue to provide product support for both automakers until 2020.

Read the full story Posted: Apr 04,2018

Ten German companies establish a new OLED lighting forum

Ten Germany-based companies established a new OLED lighting alliance, called the "OLED Licht Forum" that aim to develop and promote OLED lighting technologies through dialogue and expert exchange. The forum will also organize conferences, lectures and institution visits.

The forum was founded by OLEDWorks, OSRAM, Merck, BASF coatings, EMDE, Fraunhofer, Hema electronic, Irlbacher, APEVA and WALO-TL. One of the first activities will be to create an OLED showroom in Germany that will be open to the public.

Read the full story Posted: Mar 20,2018

Merck leads a new consortium to develop quantum materials for light emission

Germany launched a new project led by Merck to develop quantum materials as light emissive sources. The three-year project is called "Exploration of quantum materials New paths to realizing innovative optoelectronic components" (ELQ-LED) and it is supported by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and led by Merck with an aim to conduct basic research on quantum materials as light emitting sources. ELQ-LED is a three-year project that will end on the summer of 2020.

Merck hopes that ELQ-LED materials will enable ultra-pure colors, higher energy efficiency and lower production costs compared to current OLED emitters. The focus of this project will be on cadmium-free quantum materials but the partners will also develop supporting components, processes, transport materials and ink. All components developed in this project will be printable, and the project will test its developments in display prototypes and automotive tail light demonstrators.

Read the full story Posted: Feb 01,2018

The EU LEO project developed efficient and cost-effective OLED lighting technologies

In 2015 the EU launched a 3-year €4 million OLED lighting project, the LEO project (Low-cost / energy Efficient OLEDs) that had an aim to develop efficient and cost-effective bendable OLED lighting technologies. The project consortium included Osram, and Cynora.

A month before the project officially ends, the partners updated on their progress. For this project, the partners develops several technologies, including low-cost metal foils integrating OLED anodes and possibly backside monitoring printed circuits, smart OLED top-electrode architectures and light out-coupling solutions and a novel thin film top-encapsulation strategies. These technologies together increased the light output by 50% while providing better surface scratch resistance.

Read the full story Posted: Dec 06,2017

Audi details the OLED lighting panels used in the 2018 A8

In July 2017 Audi unveiled its flagship luxuries sedan, the 2018 Audi A8, which uses OLED taillights. Hopefully the A8 is Audi's first car with OLED panels in all versions (the 2016 TT RS also has OLED lighting, but these were optional).

Audi A8 2018 OLED structure slide

Audi did not yet reveal the specification of these OLEDs, but now it has released the image above which shows the structure. The A8 uses four OLED modules on each side , each with what seems to be 6 different structured panels, a large red one and five yellow ones which form the turn indicators.

Read the full story Posted: Oct 14,2017

The OLED lighting panels in Audi's TT RS are produced by Osram

In April 2016 Audi unveiled its 2016 TT RS coupe - with optional OLED taillights. This is the world's first serially-produced car to have OLED taillights, and up until now we did not know the lighting producer (it was rumored to be LGD, but that was later denied).

Today Osram revealed that it is producing those OLED lighting panels for Audi. Osram also reveals that each module contains four patterned OLED panels with a total light-emitting area of 49 cm2 and a brightness of 1,000 cd/m2. The module is mounted on a holder with a mirrored bezel, guaranteeing optimum visibility on the road.

Read the full story Posted: Nov 02,2016