OLEDs in Lighting: Status and Trends

Despite the great success of OLEDs in displays, the technology has struggled to establish a substantial presence in general lighting, mainly because of the high cost. Market progress was hindered by the offering of inferior products by some large international companies, who made major investments in large factories before the market and manufacturing technology were ready. The product quality has been improved substantially over the past two years, in both performance and reliability. Routes to market penetration have been identified, some of which will bring products that combine elements of lighting and displays. But even for such markets, new manufacturing techniques will be required to reduce costs and enable high volume production of some of the exciting prototypes that have emerged from research laboratories.

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Despite the great success of OLEDs in displays, the technology has struggled to establish a substantial presence in general lighting, mainly because of the high cost. Market progress was hindered by the offering of inferior products by some large international companies, who made major investments in large factories before the market and manufacturing technology were ready. The product quality has been improved substantially over the past two years, in both performance and reliability. Routes to market penetration have been identified, some of which will bring products that combine elements of lighting and displays. But even for such markets, new manufacturing techniques will be required to reduce costs and enable high volume production of some of the exciting prototypes that have emerged from research laboratories.