General Electric and Konica Minolta have achieved 56 lumens-per-watt efficiency, proving that flexible, white OLED lighting devices can be made at low cost using "solution-coatable" materials.
They plan to manufacture OLEDs using high-speed, roll-to-roll processes rather than the vacuum-based batch processes in the OLED display industry.
The key of making OLEDs commercially viable for general lighting applications is Roll-to-roll processing. Solution, or wet coating, is the highest throughput manufacturing method for coating the organic layers that are the essence of an OLED lighting device.
Additionally, this type of coating is ideally suited for roll-to-roll processing and critical to enabling the production of OLEDs at high speeds. This latest achievement means we're starting to see the OLED light at the end of the tunnel, according to John Strainic, global product general manager for GE Lighting.
