June 8, 2006, Eindhoven, The Netherlands, and Dresden, Germany--Royal Philips Electronics and Novaled announced that in a joint research effort between Philips Lighting, Philips Research and Novaled, an unsurpassed record combination for efficiency and lifetime of high-brightness white OLEDs (Organic Light-Emitting Diodes) has been achieved.
Philips and Novaled reached a new record for the power efficiency of a white OLED, obtaining 32 lm/W with color coordinates of 0.47/0.45 and a CRI of 88 at a brightness of 1,000 cd per meter-squared. That same device structure thereby simultaneously shows a lifetime of more than 20,000 hours, which is a major achievement for a future commercialization of the OLED technology for lighting applications. The efficiency of the device was measured using an integrating sphere using only the forward emission cone of the OLED device without attaching any lens or any other volume type luminaire to the OLED device. This is the only method to reliably predict power efficiency values for large area lighting tiles.
"This is an important step forward, as it consistently proves the potential of the OLED technology for lighting applications and shows continuous strong advancements in the technical development," said Dietrich Bertram, manager of the OLED development at Philips Lighting.
Jan Blochwitz-Nimoth, CTO of the Novaled AG added:"This result combines for the first time ultra-high power efficiency and high operational stability and can pave the way to a bright future of OLED lighting. We expect to be able to increase this efficiency to values above 50lm/W in the near future."
The joint research effort is another example of successful collaboration between leading OLED R&D centres in Europe. The result will be used in future developments, ongoing projects and the recently started European project OLLA (Organic LEDs for Lighting Applications), in which both parties are involved.