Fig1: Transparent organic light-emitting diode

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, e.g. 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. OLEDs consume up to 70% less energy compared to conventional light sources. This makes OLED technology a prime candidate for the next generation of energy-saving lighting. But before flexible large-area OLED lighting can be commercialized, more R&D is needed to solve some outstanding challenges.

Fig1: Transparent organic light-emitting diode on foil (Courtesy of TNO/Holst)

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

The IMOLA consortium includes industrial and academic partners that 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).

IMOLA’s application demonstrators in the areas of car and wall lighting will raise public awareness and acceptance for environmental-friendly OLED lighting. In addition, IMOLA will help create a common OLED infrastructure on a European scale. IMOLA’s R&D results will help to give Europe a leading edge in OLED fabrication, especially in the field of high value-added applications, such as automotive lighting.