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.

Researchers and product development teams from GE and KM have been working together on OLED technology since 2007. The teams continue to make steady progress in the lifetime and lighting quality of OLED lighting devices produced from roll-to-roll manufacturing.

John Strainic, global product general manager for GE Lighting, said, "This type of coating is ideally suited for roll-to-roll processing and critical to enabling the production of OLEDs at high speeds. In simple terms, this latest achievement means we're starting to see the OLED light at the end of the tunnel."

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