OLEDWorks was established in July 2010 by former Kodak OLED business experts and has become one of the OLED lighting leaders. In 2015 OLEDWorks acquired Philips' OLED lighting business.
OLEDWorks produces panels in both Rochester New York and Aachen, Germany (the Philips' site). The company offers a wide range of OLED panels and related products, and in November 2018 OLEDWorks started to ship its first flexible OLED lighting panels.
The latest OLEDWorks news:
OLEDWorks uses BASF barrier as a planarization layer in its new Brite 3 OLED lighting panels
A few days ago OLEDWorks announces its new OLED lighting series, the Brite 3 OLEDs, which include OLEDWorks' first flexible OLED lighting panels, branded as BendOLEDs.
BASF's Coatings division announced that OLEDWorks uses the company's flexible barrier solutions in its Bright 3 family of OLED panels (both flexible and rigid). OLEDWorks uses BASF materials as planarization layer to enable highly reliable thin-film encapsulation.
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.
OLEDWorks announces new rigid and flexible OLED lighting panels
OLEDWorks announces two new OLED lighting panels, the rigid Lumiblade Brite 3 panels and the BendOLED flexible ones.
The Brite 3 OLEDs are more efficient than OLEDWorks' current Brite 2 OLEDs, offering an efficiency of up to 85 lm/W. The brightness is 300 lumens (8,500 cd/m2) and the lifetime is 100,000 hours (L70, at 100 lumens). The Brite 3 OLEDs are available in two colors and offer a CRI of >90. The Brite 3 are offered in three product shapes: square, rectangle and round. These Lumiblade panels will be produced at OLEDWorks' Aachen production site.
OLEDWorks starts producing curved OLED lighting panels
In April 2017 OLEDWorks announced its roadmap for 2018-2020, stating that it will released 80-100 lm/W flexible panels in 2018. It seems that the company indeed started producing flexible curved OLED panels, even though it did not announce this officially.
Germany-based producer WALO-TL announced it will present two new OLED lighting lamps (the WALOSUMMER and WALOSPRING) - and both use a range of panels made by OLEDWorks, including curved rectangular panels. In addition, OLEDWorks published the following image on its instagram feed, showing an RGB Studio lamp that uses what seems to be the same panels.
Merck and OLEDWorks demonstrate a new OLED/OPV installation concept
Merck, OLEDWorks, OPVIUS and Kolon launched a new textile-based "façade" concept that combines OLED lighting panels and OPV (organic PV panels). The new structure was launched as part of the first Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism.
The façade, in which the structure is made from Bamboo, was designed by architects Nikolaus Hirsch, Michel Müller and artist Rirkrit Tiravanija. The same installation will also be delivered to more exhibitions in Germany and Thailand during 2018.
The US DoE awards five new OLED project grants
The US Department of Energy announced 11 new solid state lighting projects grants, out of which five are related to OLED technologies (the rest are for new LED technologies).
We already posted on two of these grants which were awarded to Pixelligent. In addition to Pixelligent, OLEDWorks were also awarded with two SBIR Phase 1 projects, one for an ultrathin, curved, high-efficiency OLED light engine that will reduce the cost OLED lighting and the second for the development of a novel substrate and encapsulation process.
Lumlight launches a crowdfunding campaign for its first OLED lighting lamp
Taiwan's organic chemicals maker Luminescence Technology (Lumtec) launched a new company called Lumlight to develop and produce OLED Lighting based products.
The company's first product is the OLED EyeCare Lamp, which uses an OLED panel to provide a healthy light source. Lumlight launched a crowdfunding campaign with an aim to raise $120,000 HKD (about $15,000 USD).
OLEDWorks introduces its latest OLED panel, the Brite Amber
OLEDWorks introduced a new OLED lighting panel, the Brite Amber. This panel is free from any blue emission and OLEDWorks sees applications in the healthcare, senior living and residential markets. This upgrade to OLEDWorks' existing Amber panel features a higher brightness of 2,000 cd/m2.
The Brite AMber features an efficiency of over 50 lm/W and the lifetime is over 25,000 (but OLEDWOrks does not mention at what brightness level). The panel is 41.5 x 101.6 mm in size (active area 88 x 25 mm).
OLEDWorks aims to release 80-100 lm/W flexible OLEDs by 2018
OLEDWorks latest panel is the Brite 2 - announced in March 2016. The Brite 2 offers a brightness of 300 lumens, a high CRI (>90) and an efficiency of 60 lm/W. According to the company's roadmap, OLEDWorks aims to release 80-100 lm/W flexible panels by next year.
By 2020, OLEDWorks' panels will have an efficiency of over 100 lm/W and a lifetime of over 50,000 hours (LT70).
The DoE grants two new SBIR OLED lighting projects
The US Department of Energy (DoE) announced new SBIR and STTR grants for solid state lighting projects. The DoE announced five new grants out of which two are related to OLED technologies.
Pixelligent Technologies were awarded an SBIR project titled "Light Extraction for OLED Lighting with 3-D Gradient Index". This project will explore the application of a novel and unique 3D gradient index (GRIN) layer to improve the efficiency and lifetime of OLED devices. Using such a unique structure, OLEDs could be produced that achieve the theoretical maximum extraction efficiency.