Vossloh-Schwabe (owned by Panasonic Electric Works) unveiled a new prototype OLED+LED luminaire. The OLEDs are of course provided by Panasonic themselves (or actually PIOL), and are color tunable:

PIOL is already shipping OLED panels, but this is the first time we hear of any color-tunable ones from the company, these are not available to purchase yet as far as we know. Update: according to one of our readers, the LEDs are tunablem but the OLEDs aren't.

Philips released a new roadmap for their OLED lighting products. The company decided to split its OLED offering into two families - one for decorative lighting and one for performance lighting. The decorative panels are normally reflective in the off state, and Philips will offer transparent ones as soon as next year. Color tunable and transparent panels will arrive in 2018. And Philips predicts that by then it'll be able to offer 1x1 meter panels! It will sure be interested to see those large, flexible, light emitting panels...

Decorative lighting roadmap

The downside of the decorative panels is the efficiency: In 2015 these panels will offer only 15 lm/W (that's only marginally better than an incandescent lamp). By 2018, those large flexible panels will offer 35 lm/W - which is still very low (Fluorescent lamps today offer 70-100 lm/W).

Universal Display and Acuity Brands presented advances in their stripes white OLED architecture project. A stripes OLED is made from thin stripes of red, green and blue OLEDs. When you put a diffuser panel on top, it appears white. The stripes architectural results in efficient panels, that are also color tunable (2500-4000K).

UDC reports that the project is proceeding well - and in fact the pixel performance exceeds the project's goal. They fabricated the first 15x15 cm panel samples already and both companies are on target to deliver the actual luminaries in 2012 (which are based on the same design as the Kindred and the Revel - the lamps that use LG Chem's OLED panels). UDC is also working to further optimize the panel's performance.

Verbatim (a subsidiary of Mitsubishi) announced their new color-tunabe and dimmable OLED lighting panels called VELVE (these are made together by Mitsubishi and Pioneer). Verbatim says that the panels are already available - which makes the VELVE the world's first color-tunable OLED lighting panels. Verbatim apparantly offers just one size - 14x14cm, which is similar to Lumiotec's OLED panels.

Verbatim also announced that they will display the new panels at Fuori Salone, an exhibition held in Milan, Italy on April 12-17. Verbatim's stand was designed by Mr. Satoshi Uchihara, a lighting designer who was involved in lighting up such important sites as the famous Japanese temple Kinkakuji, and the New Terminal Building at Haneda Airport.

Universal Display and Acuity Brands has won a $2 million U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase III Xlerator grant to develop an energy-efficient and color-tunable phosphorescent OLED lighting system. The objective is to accelerate market introduction of OLED lighting (for high-end commercial and institutional applications).

Acuity Brands Lighting will design and fabricate general-purpose lighting system prototypes, targeted for high-end commercial spaces, including office, retail and health-care buildings. The light system will take advantage of the OLED panel thin form factor and quality of light.

Back in February, Pioneer and Mitsubishi Chemical has announced an OLED Lighting JV. Pioneer will produce OLED lighting panels, Mitsubishi Chemical will supply chemicals and will market and sell the panels through their Verbatim daughter company.

We had the good chance to speak with Verbatim regarding this new OLED business.

Q: Are there any updates on the OLED JV?
Mitsubishi Chemical Corp will start to supply samples at the end of 2010, and mass production in the middle of 2011.

A few days ago, Blackbody announced a new OLED lamp (the light photon) It was the first time I heard of Blackbody. Today Blackbody has unveiled a large OLED chandelier that uses 282 OLED panels. Their CTO, Bruno Dussert-Vidalet, was happy to answer a few questions:

Q: Can you give me some background-info on Blackbody? Is it part of Astron-FIAMM? Do you have other investors?

Blackbody is the commercial brand of Astron FIAMM for the general lighting industry.

Light Photon OLED lamp

Q: Do you have any OLED Business partners?

No we are doing all the OLED alone, we use commercial and R&D available materials.

Philips has published several press releases today regarding OLEDs. They are already shipping samples of their OLED lighting panels, and hope to bring these to market in 2010. Philips are also discussing three new types of OLEDs.

The first is Color-Tunable OLEDs: in these kind of panels the user can change the color of the panel. This is a new idea, and they are already working on that. Philips excepts these in 3-5 years.

We know that Philips are also working on Transparent OLEDs, and now they say that these too might be available in 3-5 years.

Transparent OLEDs by Philips

Lastly, Philips are less optimistic about Flexible OLEDs - these might only appear in 5-8 years. Interestingly, more than transparent ones.

OSRAM Opto Semiconductors today announced the latest achievements in its white OLED project, funded by a $4.65 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). The 2004 DOE grant was issued to research the potential of white OLEDs to save energy in commercial and residential lighting applications. OSRAM's most recent milestone provides a breakthrough in polymer-OLED technology by achieving a record 25 lumens-per-watt (lm/W) of device efficiency.

The company also announced it has developed the first polymer-OLED, "tunable" light source, enabling color tuning and true illumination-design freedom.
"We are very excited to announce our latest DOE achievements. These milestones directly support the DOE's objectives by demonstrating polymer-OLED potential in lighting applications," said Dr. Alfred Felder, OLED Business Unit Head, OSRAM Opto Semiconductors. "By exploring polymer-OLED technology for solid-state lighting applications, we have created a powerful, innovative and desirable solution with confirmed compatibility and scalability over large areas."

Univeral Display announced a new 6x6 inch white OLED panel that features 30 lm/W - which is the world's most efficient OLED lighting panel to date. UDC's new panel is based on a design that consists of an array of red, green and blue colored stripes. These panels are tunable (by changing the intensity of each primary color).

The 30 lm/W white OLED panel can emit color temperatures between 2900 and 5700 K. The 30 lm/W was achieved at a color temperature of 4000K (like a cool fluorescent lamp). The panel also featured acolor index of over 80 CRI.