Automotive lighting has evolved from just merely lighting up the road ahead to beautiful interior decoration. As seen at the 2013 Frankfurt Motor Show in September, automotive lighting applications are evolving. LEDinside’s car lighting specialist Duff Lu shares insights on lighting trends in this article.

Universal Display Corporation, enabling energy-efficient displays and lighting with its UniversalPHOLED® technology and materials, today announced a collaboration and evaluation agreement with Philips Technologie GmbH, Business Center OLED Lighting. Under this agreement, Universal Display will begin supplying Philips with its highly efficient phosphorescent OLED (PHOLED) materials for solid-state lighting applications.

PPG Industries and Universal Display Corporation today marked the opening of a world-class organic light-emitting diode (OLED) materials production facility at PPG’s Barberton, Ohio plant. This new site, which PPG owns and operates, commenced manufacturing earlier this month and will foster the expanded development and production of Universal Display’s phosphorescent OLED (UniversalPHOLED®) materials. “This investment furthers our commitment in this growing technology area and expands our partnership with Universal Display. As the market demand for energy-efficient, high-performance OLED displays and lighting devices continues to grow, we are better prepared today to meet their needs.

Cheil Industries, a Samsung Group company specializing in textiles, will invest up to 1.8 trillion won (US $1.7 billion) for the next three years in high value-added electronic and chemical materials. The company said this on November 7 in a regulatory filing. The areas it will focus on include OLED (organic light-emitting diode), rechargeable battery separators, and polarized film.

TCL group has announced “Huaxing Power two first 8.5-genertion TFT-LCD (including oxide semiconductor and AMOLED) production line construction project proposal”was passed during a recent  shareholders’ meeting.

Researchers from the universities of Bonn and Regensburg have developed a novel type of organic light-emitting diode (OLED). These lights are suitable for the design of particularly energy-efficient cheap displays, which find applications in smart phones, tablet PCs or TVs. Applications in lighting such as in luminescent tiles are also conceivable. The scientists have now reported their findings in the journal “Angewandte Chemie” (DOI: 10.1002/anie.201307601).

Assisted Vision had developed a pair of OLED glasses that can allow blind people to see again.

Flickering façades, curved monitors, flashing clothing, fluorescent wallpaper, flexible solar cells – and all printable. This is no make-believe vision of the future; it will soon be possible using a new printing process for organic light-emitting diodes.

Another company is making a name for themselves in the bendable OLED display market. At FPD International 2013, Semiconductor Energy Laboratory (SEL) showcased their curved OLED display. What made their design stand out compared with other companies who have come before them is that their display has the ability to tightly warp around the edges of a smartphone.

Researchers of the Technical University Dresden and Fraunhofer COMEDD will present a model of a bioreactor for the cultivation of micro algae using lighting technology based on organic light-emitting diodes (OLED) at the IDW 2013 for the first time.

OLED TVs voluptuous curves and high image quality is failing to entice consumers, mainly due to its high price tag. Even the cheapest 55” OLED TV on the market released by Samsung still costs nearly US$ 9,000. But buyers after vibrant colors and HD image should not be discouraged as quantum dot technology might help drive down Ultra High Definition (UHD) LCD TV costs.

Kateeva Chief Technology Officer and OLED co-inventor Steven Van Slyke was inducted into the 2013 Consumer Electronics (CE) Hall of Fame for his contributions to the advancement of the consumer electronics industry. Van Slyke was one of 15 industry leaders honored last night at the CE Hall of Fame dinner held in Los Angeles. He joins an elite group of inductees that includes the founders of eBay and TiVo, as well as the inventor of the microprocessor, and others.

Samsung announced on September 23rd that the patent dispute with LG has finally come to an end. The two South Korean firms decided that the best method for solving the dispute was to put aside differences and cooperate instead.

By inserting platinum atoms into an organic semiconductor, University of Utah physicists were able to “tune” the plastic-like polymer to emit light of different colors – a step toward more efficient, less expensive and truly white organic LEDs for light bulbs of the future.

Philips Lighting (China) vice president and general manager Chandra Vaidyanathan in Guangzhou said that “by 2015, LED lighting will make up 45 percent of the global lighting market. This is especially true for China where proportions will be even bigger thanks to strong government promotion.”

The manufacturing of individually designed organic light-emitting diodes and solar cells and their combination can be realized in the near future. After three years the project ManuCloud (distributed Cloud product specification and supply chain manufacturing execution infrastructure), which was funded by the European Union, now successfully completed its work. As result the project partners Heliatek, Fraunhofer COMEDD, Tridonic Dresden and GSS Gebäude-Solarsysteme GmbH presented a demonstrator of a façade module, which combines the OLED and OPV ...

Mitsubishi and Pioneer have established a new company called MC Pioneer OLED Lighting (MPOL). The registered capital of the new company was one hundred and fifty million yen, and the two companies each contributed 50%. The new company will handle OLED lighting marketing and sales in Japan. MPOL offers Verbatim's Velve color-tunable OLED lighting panels that jointly made by Mitsubishi and Pioneer. MPOL has a nice website (in Japanese, though) that shows nice photos of the latest Velve installations such as the Issey Miyake store at Tokyo'...

The Berlin-based deluxe department store Quartier 206 teamed up with OSRAM AG to infuse its display windows with special lighting. Located on the Friedrichstrasse, one of the top addresses in Berlin, organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs for short) were being used to create an impressive setting for the sophisticated fashions at the store. The light technology of the future transformed glass panels into luminous surfaces which emit a warm, very soft lighting. This permitted the creation of light installations unlike anything seen before.

Acuity Brands demonstrated three new advancements in OLED luminaires at LIGHTFAIR® International 2013, April 23-25, in Philadelphia. Each energy-saving OLED luminaire was designed to enhance architectural spaces through their flexible, customizable form factors and give users novel ways to experience and design with light.

Researchers at the University of California at Berkeley have created touch-sensitive “electronic skin(e-skin)” through integrating three distinct electronic components including semiconducting carbon-nanotube transistors, pressure-sensitive polymer sensors and OLEDs. The three components are integrated over large areas on a single plastic substrate, to form a mechanically flexible sensor network that immediately light up when being touched. And the harder it is touched, the brighter the light.            Each pixel...

According to a new report from IMS Research, now part of IHS Inc, the market for LED driver ICs in LED lighting increase from $214 million in 2012 to $323 million this year. This will allow the LED market for lighting to exceed that of cell phones, which will have revenue of $316 million. Unit shipments of LED driver ICs this year will continue to favor mobile handsets with 1.5 billion units, versus 1.1 billion for LED lighting. However, in 2014 lighting is expected to exceed mobile as the volume shipment leader with 1.9 billion, compared to 1.7 billion for ...

The main aims of the common project are to improve the efficiency and service life of organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs). In addition, production costs have to be minimised to ensure that OLEDs can be successful in the general lighting mass market. In the past years, the participating companies have achieved innovative advantages that are intended to be expanded as a part of the funded project. The OLYMP project aims to make OLED attractive for the mass-market general lighting sector.   With OLYMP (Organic Light emitting sYstems based on energy ...

According to reports, Apple recently applied a trademark “iWatch” in Japan after having applied the same trademark in Russian regions. According to one patent official familiar with the situation, Apple submitted the iWatch trademark application on June 3, but Japan Patent Office website chose to release the patent on June 27. Just days before Apple kicked off its 2013 Worldwide Developers Conference, CEO Tim Cook spoke to Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg at AllThingsD’s D11 Conference in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif., where he discussed A...

In order to show the next generation of OLED lighting innovations, Philips the world's first Lumiblade OLED lighting product on 2013 Taipei International Optoelectronics Show ─ LivingShapes interactive magic mirror. This innovative OLED product combines technological innovation and modern minimalist design, the appearance of LivingShapes interactive magic mirror is just more like an elegantly designed lighting installation, but also it is a sort of interactive mirror, it can sense people's contour and move via Intelligent Sensor technology. When it is hang...

Merck will be presenting its trendsetting portfolio of organic electronic materials at LOPE-C 2013 in Munich from June 11 to 13. One highlight will be the latest highly processable organic semiconductors marketed under the lisicon brand.  For more than a decade Merck has been spurring the rapid expansion of the Printed Electronics market with consistent innovation. Today Merck is accelerating the progress of futuristic display concepts with the latest developments in its lisicon portfolio. The new generation of polymeric organic semiconductors with mobility values exceeding 1cm2/Vs enable a performance approximately twice that of amorphous silicon and allow for dramatic improvements in process windows

At SID 2013, an academic conference on display technologies (lecture number: P.140L), Japan Broadcasting Corp (NHK) and Nippon Shokubai Co Ltd announced that they thoroughly improved the oxygen and moisture resistances of their OLED device. In addition, they utilized the new technology to demonstrate a display by playing a press preview of Open House 2013 May 28, 2013. As the development of flexible OLED displays and OLED lighting devices being advanced, their durabilities remain a big problem for commercialization. To solve this problem, the barrier capab...

As a response to the (solid-state lighting) SSL Manufacturing R&D funding opportunity announcement made in December, the US. Department of Energy (DOE) has competitively selected five projects for SSL to receive the fourth round of funding. The two-year projects will focus on reducing costs while maintaining quality by improving the quality and performance of light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). Total DOE funding for the five projects is $10.1 million, while the five companies will put in a matching $10.1 million investment...

This is Machiko Aikawa of LIGHTING JAPAN Show Management. As you are aware, with diffusion of LED lightings, lighting control becomes key technology.   We, therefore, have launched "Lighting Control System Zone" inside LIGHTING JAPAN 2014. LIGHTING JAPAN gathers 1st-class exhibitors with high technologies every year.   If you produce/deal with below products/technologies/solutions, why not participate and showcase them.

Samsung will acquire 3% of Sharp for 10.4 billion yen (HK$856.8 million) to secure liquid crystal displays for smartphones and televisions. It is emphasising OLED technology that offers sharper, brighter images while consuming less power. They expect to use OLED technology to widen the gap with rival Sony. The firm, with 37.4 trillion won (HK$265.5 billion) of cash, is investing in OLEDs to boost sales of the ultra-thin sets that typically cost three times more than LCD models. Samsung and LG Electronics are depending on the new technology to counter slowing g...

At the beginning of the new year Tridonic landed a big breakthrough with OLED modules for professional lighting. Available in series, the new lighting module from the OLEDmodule LUREON REP product range for the first time achieves a luminous flux of more than 100 lumens, at dimensions of 99 x 99 mm². In addition, LUREON REP achieves a system efficiency of over 50 lm/W in neutral white, which is much higher than that achieved by comparable products on the market.