OLED-TV Display/Monitor Technology News

Universal Display Corporation, a key innovator behind today and tomorrow’s displays and lighting through its UniversalPHOLED™ technology, today announced a $1,918,878, two-year U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) contract to develop a ceiling-based white OLED lighting system. Universal Display plans to use Armstrong World Industries as a key subcontractor to fulfill the requirements of the grant. Funded through the U.S. DOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, this Solid-State Lighting (SSL) Program award supports the DOE’s long-term commitment to advance the development and market introduction of energy-efficient, solid-state white light sources for general illumination.

UniversalWOLED™ white OLED lighting has the potential to reach 150 lm/W. In the past few years, we have made tremendous progress toward this goal. After announcing a new record of 72 lm/W at the Society for Information Display Symposium in May 2008, we continued to make significant advances in this area. In June 2008, our team achieved a major milestone of 102 lm/W. This milestone is further evidence of the potential of whte OLEDs to offer significant energy savings and environmental benefits to end users around the world. With lighting accounting for over 8% of our energy consumption in the U.S., WOLEDs could have real impact on reducing energy consumption.
Already, WOLEDs have sparked keen interest from the lighting and display industries and emboldened designers and developers to consider using them in novel ways. All thanks to attractive performance features, which include:
High power efficiency
Bright, uniform white color quality
Color tunability and dimmability
Innovative form factor
Environmental friendliness

During this SSL Product Development Project, Universal Display and its subcontractor, Armstrong, will develop and deliver an integrated ceiling illumination system that is targeted to exceed the DOE’s 2010 performance goals. The white OLED lighting panels will be designed and fabricated by Universal Display using its high-efficiency phosphorescent OLED technology. The panels will then be integrated by Armstrong into its innovative TechZone™ open-architecture ceiling system. In addition, the team will deliver a white OLED lighting panel fabricated on a thin metallic foil substrate using Universal Display’s UniversalPHOLED and other OLED technologies, to demonstrate the commercial product potential of white OLEDs with a flexible form factor.

“A tremendous opportunity exists for white OLED lighting products, based on their potential energy efficiency and environmental advantages as compared to existing products,” stated Steven V. Abramson, President and Chief Executive Officer of Universal Display. “Through its Solid State Lighting program, the U.S. Department of Energy has been a very strong proponent of white OLED lighting, and it has been instrumental in helping to drive the performance of this technology to where it is today. With white OLED performance rapidly approaching commercial targets, we are delighted to be collaborating with Armstrong World Industries, a leading developer and manufacturer of innovative building systems, to develop and demonstrate a novel product concept using white OLEDs. Together, our goal is to make energy-efficient, environmentally-friendly, and economical white OLED lighting a commercial reality.”