Marek Ramsi is with LG Display’s lighting division, and discussed OLEDs for lighting. He began by showing a video from LG’s stand at the recent Light & Building conference in Frankfurt, where the firm showed off the world’s largest flexible OLED lighting panel: 320mm².
The current theoretical maximum size for OLED lighting panels is 370 x 470mm, due to the size of available substrates. To get around this issue, LG’s lighting division was transferred from LG Chem to LG Display in October last year (LG Display Takes LG Chem’s OLED Business).
The move will help LG’s lighting division to grow further and faster. LG Chem will still make the glass and plastic, but LGD will be responsible for marketing and business strategy. A new plant will be able to produce larger substrates: as many as 15,000 1,000 x 1,200mm units each month.
Ramsi said that customers are now accepting that “OLEDs are not LEDs” – both have their uses in different applications. He elaborated on some of the benefits of using OLED for lighting: the natural spectral distribution (low levels of blue light); high colour rendering index (CRI > 90); and no heat, glare or ultraviolet light. What we need now are flexible drivers, he said. The flexible light sources exist now, but rigid drivers limit possible form factors.
