OLED lighting project

Imec and its project partners have launched IMOLA (intelligent light management for OLED on foil applications), a project under the EU’s 7th framework program for ICT (FP7).

The project’s goal is to make large-area OLED-based lighting modules with built-in intelligent light management. These systems will be used in future energy-efficient wall, ceiling and car dome lighting, where the light intensity can be adjusted intelligently, eg, according to the time of the day or weather conditions.

OLEDs (organic light-emitting diode) are paper-thin, flexible and lightweight electronic devices. They consist of organic materials which emit light in response to an electric current. They consume up to 70% less energy compared with conventional light sources. This makes them a prime candidate for the next generation of energy-saving lighting, but before flexible large-area OLED lighting can be commercialised, more R&D is needed to solve some outstanding challenges.

These areas, which mainly concern the driving electronics, power distribution, integration and miniaturisation, as well as sensors and application intelligence, will be tackled by IMOLA.

The consortium includes industrial and academic partners who are leaders in their field of expertise. Next to Imec, the project coordinator, the partners involved in IMOLA are TNO/Holst Centre (Netherlands), Philips Technologie (Germany), NXP Semiconductors (Netherlands, Belgium), Hanita Coatings RCA (Israel), Henkel Electronic Materials (Belgium), Centro Ricerche Plast-optica (Italy) and the FER department of the University of Zagreb (Croatia).