PIOL

Panasonic to withdraw from the OLED lighting market

Panasonic is reportedly going to withdraw from the OLED lighting market. The Japanese company cannot see earnings coming from this operation due to the high cost of production. Panasonic Idemitsu OLED lighting (PIOL, established in 2011 with Idemitsu Kosan) will be dissolved. Panasonic will turn all of its focus into LED lighting.

This is sad news and a bit of surprise as only a few weeks ago Panasonic demonstrated three new OLED lighting panels at a LED trade show in Tokyo, including the company's first flexible OLEDs. On the other hand, In December 2013 Panasonic also canceled their OLED TV joint development with Sony. So perhaps it makes sense for Panasonic to withdraw from OLEDs altogether.

Read the full story Posted: Mar 30,2014

Panasonic unveils flexible, thin and efficient OLED lighting prototypes

Panasonic demonstrated three new OLED lighting panels at a LED trade show in Tokyo. First up is a flexible panel - this is the first time Panasonic demonstrated a flexible OLED. They did not reveal any specification - beside the fact that it is only 0.4 mm thick.

The second panel is a 10x10 cm panel that offers a luminous efficiency of 100 lm/W. Panasonic already unveiled a 114 lm/W panel back in 2013 - but it was a lot smaller (1x1 cm). According to Tech-On, the panel is not very bright and is also rather yellowish in color and they suspect that the CRI is low. Panasonic says that the emphasis has been on efficiency for this panel, and they wouldn't reveal specifications such as lifetime, CRI, color temperature, etc.

Read the full story Posted: Mar 05,2014

New OLED lighting prototypes shown at Lighting Japan 2014

There's an interesting article over at JapanTimes, covering the Lighting Japan 2014 event that took place last month. They also posted a nice video from the conference, showing several OLED installations from NEC Lighting, Philips, PIOL and others. There are also some flexbile (formable) OLEDs on display, I'm not sure if these are from LG Chem or Konica Minolta (the only two companies that actually produces flexible OLED lighting prototypes).

NEC Lighting is developing OLED lighting for a long time (over 10 years), and during the video you can see demonstrations of the company's OLED panels, including transparent ones (these were unveiled in 2013).

Read the full story Posted: Feb 12,2014

Panasonic shows OLED TV and lighting prototypes at IFA 2013

As promised, Panasonic showed 56" 4K (3840x2160) OLED TV panel at the IFA 2013 exhibition. The company had several prototypes on display, and I believe these are the same panels as the ones Panasonic unveiled at CES 2013 in January 2013.

Panasonic panels are made using an "all-printing" method, and Sumitomo Chemical revealed that these prototypes use the company's PLED materials. Panasonic's panel uses a substrate (probably Oxide-TFT) provided by Sony (which are actually made by AU Optronics) - as part of the two companies collaboration. According to the latest reports, they only plan to start OLED production at around 2015.

Read the full story Posted: Sep 08,2013

PIOL announces new OLED panels, sees 100 lm/W panels in 2015

Panasonic Idemitsu OLED Lighting (PIOL) unveiled new OLED lighting panels and also revealed the company's roadmap till 2018. The company currently produces 100x100 mm panels, and they are now showing new 150x50 mm and 200x50 mm panels that will be released in the spring of 2013.

PIOL OLED panels

The new panels will offer the same performance as PIOL's current panels: 10,000 lifetime (LT70), 30 lm/W and color temperatures of 3000K, 4000K and 5000K. PIOL confirmed that the only difference to the current panels is the shape. PIOL's panels have a high CRI (over 90) and they mostly target museums and exhibitions (some of the panels have already been used in at least two museums: Kyoto's MOMAK museum and Panasonic's own Shiodome museum).

Read the full story Posted: Jan 24,2013

PIOL now offers OLED lighting kits with 3 OLED panels for $950

Panasonic Idemitsu OLED Lighting (PIOL) started to offer OLED lighting kits. For ¥78,500 (about $950) you get three OLED lighting panels, two stands (which including dimming controls) and an AC adapter. The OLED lighting panels are 97x90 mm in size (2 mm thick), offer a luminance of 3,100 cd/m2, a lifetime of 10,000 hours (LT70) and an efficiency if 26-30 lm/W. Each panel in the kit has a different color temperature (3000K, 4000K and 5000K).

PIOL's panels have a high CRI (over 90) and they target museums and exhibitions. Panasonic made panels have already been used in at least two museums: Kyoto's MOMAK museum and Panasonic's own Shiodome museum.

Read the full story Posted: Nov 29,2012

Panasonic to release new daylight and natural white OLED lighting panels

Panasonic announced they will soon release two new OLED lighting panels (and modules). The new panels will feature daylight white (5000K) and natural white (4000K) and will complement the already available bulb-color (3000K) panels). The panels, made by Panasonic Idemitsu OLED Lighting (PIOL) are already shipping and the modules (which include a built-in control circuit) will ship in August.

The panels feature a CRI of over 90, a lifetime of 10,000 hours (LT70) and an efficiency if 26-30 lm/W. They are 2 mm thick. The panels luminance: 2,600 cd/m² (5000K), 2800cd/m² (4000K), 3000cd/m² (3000K).

Read the full story Posted: Jul 20,2012

Vossloh-Schwabe shows a new luminaire that combines LEDs and color-tunable OLEDs

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.

Read the full story Posted: May 03,2012

Panasonic's ELeaf OLED technology on video

Panasonic released a nice video from L+B 2012, showing their LED and OLED technologies. Panasonic is now using the ELeaf brand for their OLED panels. The OLED part starts at 1:34 on the video below:



Panasonic Idemitsu OLED Lighting (PIOL), a joint-venture between Panasonic Electric Works (PEW) and Idemitsu Kosan is already shipping OLED panel samples. A short while ago PEW announced that they developed the world's most efficient OLED modules (128 lm/W).

Read the full story Posted: Apr 17,2012

Kyoto's MOMAK museum to use Panasonic's OLED lighting panels

Panasonic Electric Works (PEW) announced that they will provide next-generation lighting (LEDs and OLEDs) to be used in a new exhibition at the National Museum of Modern Art in Kyoto, Japan (MOMAK). The exhibition ( "Takeshi Kitamura: Master of Contemporary Weaving") will be illuminated by ten OLED modules and thirty LED lighting fixtures.

This is a pilot project - the purpose of which is to verify the future potential of OLED lighting in museums. According to Panasonic, museum exhibitions require high color-rendering and low UV and IR rays (which can damage artwork). PEW says they expect next generation lighting to be adopted in museums as the main form of illumination.

Read the full story Posted: Nov 02,2011