EU-wide supply chain developed from materials and equipment to processing WOLED lighting panels. M&S is an end user and supplier of finished OLED panels. Flexolighting tech is available for any European manufacturer with suitable commercial agreement as a “turn-key” solution.
High throughput production with high uniformity and lower cost enables wider acceptance of OLED lighting. Material cost reduced by almost 50%. Puts European manufacturers at the forefront of OLED industry. Reduction of CO2 and SO2. Supports EU Directives 2012/27/EC, 2005/32/EC, 2002/91/EC, 2009/125/EC, 2002/95/EC. Large area spatial ALD reduces cost of barrier film manufacture by ≥25%. Creation of new products = secured employment, higher revenues. LE films will overcome challenge of reducing light loss and will make OLED panels more efficient and competitive. Planarised Ni coated steel suitable substrate for OLED will lead to 20% reduction in cost (cf ITO glass) and new products for steel industry. New hole injectors and transporters shown to be superior to commercial materials and solution processible charge transport materials mean new products for EU chem industry. Highly transparent and conducting graphene layers manufactured and successfully transferred from Cu sheet to glass and plastic. Enables mass production of high quality graphene films, puts EU in world leading position.
Cost is currently limiting OLED tech for general lighting. OVPD reduces cost to €5/1000lm. Further savings can be made by using materials and components, developed in project, and capable of producing same performance as current commercial alternatives. For example, replacing glass with Ni/Cu coated steel would reduce cost by 20%. Using PEDOT produced by OVPD, overprinted with Cu track, would reduce cost by 16%. Replacing top glass plate with barrier layer coated plastic would reduce cost by 4%. Direct TFE by atmospheric ALD would reduce cost by ≥5%. Overall, consortium estimates costs of €3.80/1000lm (assuming 100lm/W with 100% LE) for OLED, which is considerably cheaper than halogen lamps or LED luminaires with diffusers.
Development of OLED for lighting purposes will have spin-off applications in industries such as OPV, OTFT, touch sensitive panels, automotive headlights, signage, wearable and flexible displays, electronic textiles. Interest in photonics among the general public would be improved.
Commercialisation of OLED for general lighting applications will create employment within EU. Assuming sales of €100k/yr will result in employment of one person, more than 2000 downstream jobs could be created by 2025 with an anticipated rise according to market penetration. This represents a roughly 1.3% increase in a sector that currently employs 150,000 people.
OLED lighting panels benefit the environment by making efficient use of energy and thus reducing CO2 and SO2 from power plants. Substrates and most materials can be recycled.
