Philips officially announced their latest OLED panel, the Lumiblade Brite FL300. This 12x12 cm (10x10 cm active area) new panel is very bright - up to 300 lumens. The FL300 is quite efficient (over 50 lm/W) and comes in either 3000K or 4000K.

This panel uses thin-film encapsulation and is only 1.4 mm thick. The lifetime is 10,000 hours (LT70) at full brightness and 50,000 hours at 125 lumens. The CRI is over 80.

I just got word from Philips that the company intends to soon launch their first own OLED luminaire for office and retail. Philips has high hopes for this luminaire.

The luminaire is modular, and each module will use four of the Philips newest OLED panels which will be unveiled at the Light + Building show in April. Philips says that this lamp will meet "lighting norms" for workplaces.

Philips launched a new OLED lighting panel, the Lumiblade SI210.105, aimed towards signage and emergency lighting applications. This panel is 210x105 mm in size and only 2.5 mm thin, and features a luminance of 800 cd/m², a color temperature of 4,500K and a lifetime of over 5 years (presumable with continuous operation).

Philips tells us that they see a real market for OLED lighting in emergency lighting. In fact ETAP already launched the world's first OLED emergency lighting product, the K4, and indeed they use the SI210.105 panel. Philips are now offering the panel for other OEMs. The OLED itself is a white OLED, and the OEM inserts a thin film with the graphics on top.

The LED Tech Talk show hosted Dietmar Thomas, Philips' OLED communication and brand manager (and also my personal friend). Philips talks about the company's current OLED lighting offering and their expectations for the near future.

Dietmar actually says that OLEDs are ready for the general lighting market - and by general lighting he means stuff like emergency exit signs, signage in general and under-the-shelf lighting. Philips also sees OLEDs enter the residential lighting market, but this will only happen in 2017 or so.

Universal Display signed a collaboration and evaluation agreement with Philips' OLED lighting unit, under which UDC will start supplying Philips with sample PHOLED materials.

Philips is already using PHOLED materials when producing the Lumiblade Plus panel, but this 45 lm/W panel was designed by Konica Minolta and Philips is only the producer. The G350 Gen 2 OLED panel is probably also using phosphorescent materials (as it achieved 45 lm/W) but perhaps this too uses KM's design. Philips expects the G350 Gen3 to achieve 55 lm/W, so probably the new PHOLED materials will go into that panel in 2014.

OLED is a unique lighting technology - it enables flat, diffused planar lighting panels. These panels are different to the point (or line) sources we're used to - incandescent, fluorescent, CFLs and LEDs. But you can also use LEDs to build planar lighting panels. Several companies are offering such solutions called edge-lit panels.

Israel's OREE developed proprietary technology that enables them to offer panels which are so thin that they are quite similar to OLED panels in form (almost... more on this below), yet are efficient, very bright and a lot cheaper than current OLEDs. They were kind enough to invite me to their offices for a visit and also sent me a couple of samples for a review.

OLED lighting based emergency lighting has been suggested back in 2009 by Kenwood, and later in 2010 by Novaled and Willing. But now we finally have the first commercial product, the ETAP K4, in which the pictogram is the actual illuminating OLED surface. ETAP collaborated with Philips to enable this product and are using Lumiblades panels. The K4 is now available and it's about 40% more expensive then ETAP's high-end LED luminaire.

The size of the emergency panel is 227x134 mm, and it is 4 mm thick. The lit area is 210x105 mm. The panel should last for 10 years (the lifetime is 35,000 hours, LT70), and ETAP provides a 5 year warranty. The efficiency is 40 lm/W (this is based on Philips' Lumiblade Plus, developed by Konica Minolta).

Philips hosted an OLED lighting webinar on August 31. Ingolf Sischka, Philips' OLED Product & Marketing Manager explained about OLED lighting, its advantages compared to other lighting technologies and Philips' current and future offerings. Towards the end of his presentation (27:45), he discusses what's to be expected from Philips in 2014, and he details the upcoming 3rd-gen GL350 panel that will be unveiled towards the end of 2013.

The Gen 2 panel offered 200 lumens and 45 lm/W. The new upcoming panel will feature 300 lumens and 55 lm/W - so it will be brighter and more efficient (this is an estimate and not final specifications yet, though). The GL350 Gen-2 is now in production, and I'm guessing that the Gen-3 will enter production sometimes towards the end of 2014.

Update: these front-lights are most likely LEDs and not OLEDs...

Ford unveiled a new concept car, the S-MAX passenger-van at the Frankfurt Motor Show. The headlights are made from OLED lighting panels:

I'm not sure who makes these OLEDs, but I guess it's either Osram or Philips. From what I can see in those photos, it looks somewhat similar to the 3D OLEDs Philips developed with Merck and Audi a few months ago. Osram is also actively looking at the automobile market for its OLED lighting panels and promised us some new prototypes during the exhibition (they also promised commercial availability by 2016).

The VIP club in Kuala Lampur installed a large Philips LivingScrulpture 3D OLED system - with 1,680 Philips Lumiblade GL26 (Tall Square) panels. The OLEDs are engineered to move in rhythm with the music, meeting the need for dynamic lighting that illuminates well. This huge lighting system was installed by SLT Asia.

SLT actually says that they built the OLED system themselves at an economical price - at quarter the typical cost. So perhaps this isn't an original Philips LivingScrulpture 3D system but something similar developed by SLT.