The German government launched a new 34 million Euro (about $44 million) two years project called OLYMP ("Organic Light-emitting sYstems based on energy and cost-efficient Materials and Processes") that aims to improve OLED lighting efficiency and lifetime. 

The project partners are Osram (the project coordinator), Merck, BJB, LEDON, KG and Trilux. It follows a complete approach that covers all value-creation levels.

Back in April we posted about light-emitting electrochemical cells (LEC), a cheaper (but less efficient) flexible alternative to OLED lighting. Today we learned that OSRAM are also actively researching organic LECs (OLECs), and indeed they view them as a mid-term technology (until OLED catches on) for low-cost wide-area luminaires.

OSRAM already produced large (15x14 cm) LEC prototypes on an R&D setup at Augsburg. A conductive polymer layer is initially applied to the supporting plastic foil that was previously provided with a conductive, transparent layer. Following an infrared drying process the light-emitting layer is applied via the same procedure. Electrons from standard metals can then be vapour-deposited. Unlike LEDs and OLEDs the OLEC production process does not need any clean rooms.

OSRAM is presenting a new luminaire (called the Rollercoaster) that features transparent OLED panels. OSRAM says that they have made some significant advances and they now plan to start series-production of such panels in 2014. 

The Rollercoaster looks like a glass and metal sculpture when turned-off and has a mobius-form (and so looks like a rollercoaster). It has 30 rectangular OLED panels, each with an active area of 18x6.5 cm. The OLEDs feature an efficiency of 20 lm /W and a transparency of 57% (which they say is the highest yet for such large panels. Fraunhofer's TABOLA transparent panels, which we reviewed back in April feature 45% transparency).

The BMW Museum in Munich, Germany, is now hosting Osram's Dandelion OLED installation - with its 1000 OLED panels. The Dandelion was first unveiled this installation at the L+B 2012 conference back in April. Osram has lent this to BMW until the end of January 2013. It's possible to buy such an installation from Osram, for about €150,000.

Just a few days ago Osram showed a beautiful automobile rearlight prototype based on OLED Lighting panels. Maybe BMW will return Osram's favor and come up with a new model that uses OLED lighting...

OSRAM has unveiled a cool new automobile rearlight prototype based on OLED Lighting panels:

The Automobile market is attracting many OLED producers. Just last month Astron Fiamm showed an updated Car.Bones prototype with OLED headlights, inside-lighting, turn indicators, and more. Audi has also unveiled some very unique OLED lighting designs, in collaboration with Philips.

The FC Bayern Fan world exhibition showcases the football club's 112-year history, and now OSRAM has equipped it with new LED and OLED based lamps. In fact OSRAM have designed the "as above so below" pendant luminaire (shown below) especially for this exhibition.

During L+B 2012 OSRAM unveiled a new OLED panel (the Orbeos SDW-058 40 lm/W panel), but the company also had an interesting new OLED lamp/installation on show:

Apparently this uses around 1,000 Orbeos panels, and costs €150,000. It looks somewhat like the older Qube installation, but smaller in scale (you cannot enter inside it seems...).

Osram unveiled their second generation OLED lighting panel, the square Orbeos SDW-058. The new panel (which is built in the new pilot production line in Regensburg) is more efficient at 40 lm/W (up from around 25 lm/W), and it's also larger (119x119 mm). We do not have more information about the new panels yet.

Osram also unveiled a new connector system - a plug&play solution for Orbeos panels. Osram says this is the first step toward a standardized contact system for OLED components. Just one click is need to connect all Orbeos panels (both mechanically and electrically). The new system also allows to connect two Orbeos panels back to back.

Tridonic sent us a brochure showing six new OLED lamps, all powered by their module. One of these is the Manta Rehi, the kinetic OLED luminaire we already reported about.

Ledon (the company behind the Tridonic brand) uses Osram Orbeos panels and LG Chem panels. They wouldn't reveal which panels are used in which lamps.

Selux and design studio ART+COM unveiled a new OLED luminaire, the Manta Rhei. They call this a "kinetic luminaire" - because it integrates mechnical movement, with several individually designed choreographies:

The Manta Rehi is 1.2x2.4 meters and it has 140 OLED modules. The OLED modules were provided by Tridonic (Ledon), so we assume these are either Osram Orbeos panels or LG Chem ones. The design here is very nice, although I wonder how much power is wasted by the moving mechanism...