"Researchers have long dreamed of making OLEDs using a newspaper-printing like roll-to-roll process," said Anil Duggal, manager of GE's Advanced Technology Programme in Organic Electronics. "Now we've shown that it is possible. Commercial applications in lighting require low manufacturing costs, and this demonstration is a major milestone on our way to developing low cost OLED lighting devices."
Duggal continued, "Beyond OLEDS, this technology also could have broader impact in the manufacturing of other organic electronic devices such as organic photovoltaics for solar energy conversion, sensors and roll-up displays."
"For businesses, architects, lighting designers and anyone interested in pushing the envelope to achieve increasingly energy-efficient lighting - and vastly expanded lighting design capabilities - today marks the day that viable, commercialised OLED lighting solutions are coming into view," said Michael Petras, GE Consumer & Industrial's vice president of electrical distribution and lighting. "We have more work to do before we can give customers access to GE-quality OLED solutions, but it's now easier to envision OLEDs becoming another high-efficiency GE offering, like LEDs, fluorescent, halogen or high-efficiency incandescent."
The demonstration of a low-cost, roll-to-roll process for OLED lighting represents the successful completion of a four-year, $13 million research collaboration among GE Global Research, Energy Conversion Devices and the US Commerce Department's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The goal of the collaboration was to demonstrate a cost-effective system for the mass production of organic electronics products such as flexible electronic paper displays, portable TV screens the size of posters, solar powered cells and high-efficiency lighting devices.
ECD senior vice president Nancy Bacon said, "This programme was a major step in developing high volume roll-to-roll manufacturing for OLEDs and other organic semiconductor devices. We are utilising this technology to mass produce our flexible, durable and lightweight UNI-SOLAR brand solar laminates. ECD looks forward to continuing collaboration with GE to further develop this technology for future commercialization."
(Jim Evans)
