GE Global Research, GE Lighting and Konica Minolta (KM) have announced that they are moving closer to making high-efficiency organic light-emitting diode (OLED) lighting devices a reality. Recently GE and KM scientists have demonstrated illumination-quality white OLEDs using "solution-coatable" materials that the companies consider are essential for producing low OLED lighting devices.

The efficiency milestone was presented at the recent International Symposium on the Science and Technology of Light Sources being held in Eindhoven, Netherlands, by Anil Duggal, GE's OLED lighting technology leader, who said "we have produced high-performance white OLED lighting devices with a commercially viable lifetime using 'solution coating' rather than 'vacuum coating' processes. This allows us to make use of the high volume roll-to-roll manufacturing infrastructure that already has been perfected in the printing industry."

GE and KM plan to manufacture OLEDs using high-speed, roll-to-roll processes rather than the vacuum-based batch processes used by companies in the OLED display industry. The two companies believe that roll-to-roll processing is key to making OLEDs commercially viable for general lighting applications.

Dow Electronic Materials has officially opened its new OLED Electronic Materials facility in Cheonan, Korea. The facility will supply leading-edge emissive materials to serve the rapidly growing active matrix OLED market. The opening ceremony was held at the Cheonan, Korea manufacturing facility and was attended by Jerome A. Peribere, president and CEO of Dow Advanced Materials, and regional government officials from South Chungchong Province and Cheonan City.