Scientists and engineers on GE's OLED research team rang in the 2008 holiday season with a first-ever OLED Christmas tree lighting at GE's Global Research headquarters in Niskayuna. Illuminated in green light, GE's flexible OLED panels cut quite a tree and provide a glimpse at how this concept is going to transform the lighting industry.
"We haven't quite achieved Rockefeller or National Christmas tree lighting status yet, but we're well on our way," said Anil Duggal, who leads GE's OLED program. "We hope GE's OLED tree lighting will inspire and capture people's imagination during the holidays on the limitless possibilities of this next generation lighting concept."
"Customers will recognize while this demonstration was more for holiday spirit and team camaraderie, it does reinforce how far OLED technology has come and how it is poised to revolutionise lighting and interior design," says John Strainic, global product general manager with GE Consumer & Industrial, which will commercialise OLEDs for businesses and consumers in the coming years.
OLEDs are thin, organic materials sandwiched between two electrodes, which illuminate when an electrical charge is applied. They represent the next evolution in lighting products. Their widespread design capabilities will provide an entirely different way for people to light their homes or businesses. Moreover, OLEDs have the potential to deliver dramatically improved levels of efficiency and environmental performance, while achieving the same quality of illumination found in traditional products in the marketplace today with less electrical power.
Earlier this year, GE scientists achieved a research milestone by demonstrating the world's first roll-to-roll manufactured OLED lighting devices. This process for producing OLEDs has been likened to a newspaper printing process. Roll-to-roll manufacturing is seen as a key factor to making OLED lighting commercially viable in the general lighting industry.
Duggal said, "We're making great progress toward hitting the metrics needed to successfully introduce OLED lighting to market. We continue to make steady advances in efficiency, lifetime, and lighting-quality using device structures that can be made with roll-to-roll manufacturing, so that we'll be able to introduce OLED lighting at an affordable price."
